CHINA: Inflated Crisis

China's monetary crisis last weekend inspired an excited Associated Press cable from Shanghai: "An American consular announcement today blasted Chinese Premier T. V. Soong's abortive 100% export subsidy program, as Chinese currency continued its dizzy descent, and the complete economic collapse of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist China appeared to be a very real possibility."

It was not that bad. China's largely agricultural economy has not much to do with foreign-exchange fluctuations in Shanghai. But the latest slump in the Chinese dollar, aggravated by inept Chinese Government public relations and feverish reporting, was bad enough.

Last week Premier T. V. Soong attempted...

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