G20 summit begins today, going to be stormy

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Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, Nov 10: The G20 summit meeting beginning in Seoul, South Korea today is going to be a stormy with China, Germany and Brazil taking diametrically opposite stand taken by the US. China's rating agency downgraded the United States' credit rating yesterday and questioned American leadership of the global economy.
China warned of Washington's deteriorating debt repayment capability and said its addiction to debt has greatly diminished its credibility. China has been enraged by US backing of India's claim to be a veto wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council with the intention of countering Beijing's growing global influence. President Obama back-tracked from his earlier stand.
Addressing a press conference in Indonesia, the US president said America is not interested in containing China -- a day after endorsing India's pursuit of a permanent seat on UN Security Council in a move widely seen as an attempt at checking China's growing influence. United States and China have stepped up their rivalry in southeast Asia. Indonesia has been the biggest prize winner. Barely a day before President Obama set his foot on a very brief visit to Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, a high level Chinese delegation wrapped up a three-day official visit by announcing that Beijing would invest $6.6 billion in infrastructure improvement.
American and Chinese officials have been pursuing all 10 countries in ASEAN but none more aggressively than Indonesia -- world's fourth largest populous nation. Beijing has made great inroads in Indonesia economically, militarily and diplomatically. The nations gathering in South Korea to discuss global economic issues "show few signs of sublimiting their own interest to some greater good".
US is reinforcing views in France and China that the entire monetary system is a political toy of a dysfunctional US political system, the New York Times in a report said today. The emerging economies have some legitimate worries. If rates fall further, US investment is expected to flow to markets where returns are higher. South Korea which was planning to bring about a rapproachment between Washington and Beijing has cried off because like other fast growing countries it is confronting economic worries of its own. China's trade surplus surged to $27.1 billion in October.