US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner arrived in Beijing today to begin an official three-day visit which will include meetings with China's top leaders, dpa quoted local media as reporting. Geithner will meet with President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Wang Qishan, as well as deliver a speech at Peking University, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The economic crisis will be the focus of the meetings, with Geithner expected to encourage Beijing to rely less on exports, and instead promote domestic consumption. The visit also comes at a time when Chinese leaders and economists have expressed concern about the value of Chinese-held US bonds. China is the largest creditor of the United States, holding more than 750 billion dollars in US government debt. Earlier in the year, Premier Wen Jiabao told reporters he was "worried" about the security of China's assets, fearing a devaluation of the US dollar. On Sunday, a number of economists interviewed by state-run newspaper, the Global Times, also expressed concern. "Despite frequent vows made by US officials to assure China that the US bonds are safe in value, China still faces a real risk that the US may export its deepening crisis to China by printing US dollar notes uncontrollably," Tian Yun, a scholar at the China Macro Economics Institute, was quoted as saying. Comments which Geithner made earlier in the year about China manipulating its currency were also referred to in local media, but according to the Global Times report, discussion about the appreciation of the yuan will not top this visit's agenda. For Geithner, who studied Mandarin at Peking University in the 1980s, this is his first official visit since taking office in January.
