China Chastises Obama On Eve of Arrival.

According to an array of articles in Sunday’s Behjing News. China’s top bank regulator said Sunday the weakening U.S. dollar and low interest rates are spurring speculation in stocks and property, distorting global asset prices and threatening the global economic recovery.

The situation poses an “insurmountable risk to the recovery of the world economy,” Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, warned just hours before President Barack Obama was due to arrive in China.

Speaking at a conference in Beijing, Liu said the declining U.S. dollar and reassurances by officials that interest rates will remain low were encouraging a “massive” U.S. dollar carry trade — the practice of borrowing money at low rates in one currency to invest in assets in another currency that offer a higher return.

The carry trade is “dealing a serious blow to global asset prices and fueling speculation in the stock and real estate markets,” he said, according to a transcript of a speech he made at a financial forum in Beijing, posted on the Web site of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing Phoenix TV.

Obama is in Shanghai Sunday on his first visit to China. The formal agenda includes trade relations, security issues, human rights and climate change. He’s hoping to win China’s help in efforts to stop nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran. The huge trade imbalance between the two countries is also likely to be a topic. Host Liane Hansen talks with NPR’s Louisa Lim.

To punctuate everything China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman was equating serfdom in Tibet to slavery in the U.S. — just ahead of President Barack Obama’s first trip to China.

Was it a monumental gaffe, last-minute stab at finding a common frame of reference, or a canny piece of strategy designed to redefine the U.S.-China dispute over Tibet?