http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3662632.html

The United States should ease curbs on high-tech sales if it wants to reduce its trade deficit with China, rather than ratcheting up rhetoric, a senior government economist in Beijing said on Wednesday.

Reacting to renewed pressure from Washington, economist Chen Wenjing urged the United States to give up its "Cold War" attitude toward China.

The Bush administration on Tuesday vowed tougher steps to make China play by global trade rules, including more enforcement staff and possible trade litigation.

U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman warned that Beijing's "failure to enforce intellectual property rights, its protection and support for certain domestic industries and its refusal to fulfill certain market-opening commitments" helped fuel the huge U.S. trade gap.

But those comments reflected domestic U.S. politics, said Chen, vice president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Commerce Ministry's think-tank.

"It's known to all that the United States curbs exports and selectively sells only Boeing aircraft, soybeans and cotton to China, and that is also discriminatory as it doesn't apply the same policy to other countries," he told Reuters.

Chinese officials responded Tuesday to U.S. demands for a stronger yuan to reduce its trade surplus by saying market forces were already driving the currency.