Take That, Xiānshēng!

Here's a letter to the New York Times:

In his op-ed on U.S -China trade relations and the allegedly undervalued renminbi, Stephen Roach notes that "President Obama, in a private meeting with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, was reported to have made it very clear that the United States is, indeed, prepared to take forceful actions if China doesn't budge on this critical issue" ("Cultivating the Chinese Consumer," Sept. 29).

Translation of Mr. Obama's threat to the Chinese Prime Minister: "If you don't stop abusively taxing your citizens in order to grant unjust privileges to your favorite industries, we will more-abusively tax our citizens in order to grant unjust privileges to our favorite industries."

Sincerely,

Donald J. Boudreaux