Monitor | George Osborne is wrong about China and the yuan
British chancellor is keen to see the yuan used as an international currency, but China's trade surplus will be a major stumbling block
British government ministers do like visiting this part of the world. Prime Minister David Cameron was in China in December, attempting to promote British exports ("Do we buy from Britain," one mainlander asked at the time).
Next week education minister Elizabeth Truss is due to lead a delegation to Shanghai to investigate why it is that Chinese pupils perform so much better than their British peers in maths tests (even though, as explained this week, the statistical sampling errors involved in scoring these tests are so great they render the results meaningless).
And yesterday Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, was in Hong Kong talking up London's prospects as a centre for yuan-denominated financial business.
You can see why they are all so eager to come here. They get to appear in the media against a backdrop of skyscrapers and economic dynamism rather lacking back at home.
Rising US rates will reduce the incentives for global firms to deal in and hold the yuan
They also benefit from an old convention that dictates rival politicians and the media should refrain from criticising government ministers when they are abroad.
