The US has labeled China a currency manipulator, and the trade war does not seem to be ending anytime soon. This may not be the beginning of a US-China currency war, but is definitely another low point in the US-China trade war.

Washington’s contested sanctions and tariff hikes, plus the Fed’s rate normalization, are putting the U.S. dollar at risk as a global reserve currency, while the internationalization of the Chinese yuan is fueling complementary globalization.

With Donald Trump’s multi-front trade war, there could have been no better time to label China a ‘currency manipulator’ (evidence be damned) and slap additional duties on imports from China. Secretary Mnuchin and his team at Treasury deserves credit for preventing this.

A major Chinese exchange specializing in the trading of Bitcoin announced on Thursday that it would stop trading by the end of the month, amid a broader crackdo

The shifting exchange rate reflects the strength of the dollar, not weakness of the RMB. The two nations and business communities should focus on identifying the complementary sectors and products of the two countries and seeking a sustainable pattern of stable growth based on mutual benefit.

A long-term stable RMB exchange rate with a two-way volatility is conducive to maintaining the financial asset price, to preventing a large-scale capital outflow, to controlling foreign-debt risk, to reducing the cost and burden of debt financing and to stabilizing economic growth anticipation.

As China allows more market influence to determine the value of the RMB, the exchange rate will become more volatile. Allowing the market to determine the value of the yuan is precisely what the West has long sought, and it will serve global interests, whether China’s currency rises or falls.

Shrill forebodings of a return to ‘currency wars’ and irremediable U.S.-China trade quarrels are overblown – although the prognosis on this front is somewhat mixed. A small step backwards (the yuan devaluation on August 11th) might yet come to reflect the biggest leap forward in Asian economic, trade and financial regionalism in the years and decade ahead.