Posted on 09/09/2001 9:50:34 PM PDT by super175
US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill plans to raise China's punitive action against investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) when he meets officials in Beijing this week.
Beijing has barred CSFB from the underwriting group for China Unicom's new share offering because the investment bank helped arrange meetings between Taiwan's finance minister and fund managers.
The sharp response to CSFB has raised concerns Beijing is using its growing economic clout to pressure firms hoping to do business in the mainland.
Asked whether he would discuss China's treatment of CSFB, Mr O'Neill told reporters: "One of the kinds of things we'll talk about, and probably specifically the instance you mentioned, is the importance of true openness and a sense people don't get penalised because they are doing things around the world."
Beijing was angered by CSFB when it helped organise meetings between Taiwan's Finance Minister Yen Ching-chang and fund managers at a Taiwan-sponsored European roadshow earlier this year.
Mr O'Neill spoke to reporters yesterday after attending the meeting of finance ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Suzhou.
Mr Yen was also in Suzhou for the meeting. He met Mr O'Neill on the sidelines of the Apec meeting and quoted the US official as describing China's action as "inappropriate".
"Mr O'Neill felt that CSFB's arrangement of the roadshow was purely a commercial activity. It has nothing to do with politics," Mr Yen said.
"So he feels it was inappropriate for China to take any action against CSFB."
A meeting of the private sector Apec Financiers Group on the sidelines of the gathering did not specifically discuss the CSFB issue, but it urged governments not to interfere with specific companies.
"We recognise that from time to time there will be situations where individual institutions or sectors are differently affected by government regulations," said Glen Rase, chairman of Citibank Brunei and the Brunei Association of Banks.
"We've asked . . . governments not [to] do that, that they seek to establish consistent rules of the game."
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