US bill on foreign currencies may worsen U.S.-China relations

Simmering economic tension between the U.S. and China may be reaching a crescendo, as the U.S. Senate has introduced a bill to try to control China’s “currency manipulation.”

Economist Philip De Leon believes the draft law has been driven by domestic pressure on President Barack Obama to tackle unemployment.

“I think President Obama wanted to be nice and go to the table to negotiate,” De Leon said. “He has tried. But with China it doesn’t always work this way. So, now he understands that he needs to knock on the table and say to the Chinese, ‘You really have to change certain things.’ And that is what he is doing right now.”