Paulson, who will be leading a delegation to Beijing for talks on December 12-13, told the Financial Times that global financial and economic conditions would "increase the focus" on China's responsibilities.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - China must aim for more balanced economic growth to live up to its international responsibilities, and greater yuan flexibility would help, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in an interview published on Thursday.
Paulson, who will be leading a delegation to Beijing for talks on December 12-13, told the Financial Times that global financial and economic conditions would "increase the focus" on China's responsibilities.
"Too many people have been worried about the wrong thing -- worried that China's growth is somehow going to hurt the rest of the world," Paulson was quoted as saying.
"China's growth is helping the rest of the world and our interest is seeing that growth continue but to evolve into a more balanced growth."
!ADVERTISEMENT!It needed to focus more on domestic demand and rely less on exports to drive the economy, he said.
Critics in the United States say that China's currency, the yuan, is undervalued, giving Chinese exporters an unfair advantage and helping push up the huge U.S. trade deficit.
Addressing the Asia Society in Washington on Wednesday, Paulson noted that the yuan's rise this year was still not fast enough to reduce China's trade surplus, its internal trade imbalances or foreign exchange market pressures.
The FT reported that he welcomed the faster yuan appreciation this year -- it has risen more than 5 percent against the dollar -- and that he said in the interview: "I think we are going to see that continue."
He said a significant focus of next week's talks would be financial service liberalization, which was also "very important to China's balanced growth," plus food and product safety.
(Reporting by Alan Raybould; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
