MIDDLEMAN: Paulson, on his latest diplomatic mission to China
During an economic summit in Beijing last month, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the rest of a high-powered American delegation, including Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, had to suffer through a condescending lecture, replete with PowerPoint presentation, from China's Vice Premier Wu Yi. One of the country's top bureaucrats and a woman with a vaunted reputation as a problem solver, Wu enlightened the Americans with a lesson on the 5,000-year history of China. Her essential point: those who criticized China's economic policy did so out of ignorance. "We have had the genuine feeling," said Wu, "that some American friends...
