Beijing Olympic 2008 - United States Versus China

China and U.S. had a close encounter at the Beijing Games on August 13 over women's gymnastics.

With the two best gymnasts in the world and the Olympic gold medal within their grasp, the Americans bumbled and fumbled it away. In this American-dominated event, China beat Americans.

The Chinese flew as high as acrobats and lit up the arena with smiles as bright as their new medals. Too bad, the Americans just flopped!

Beijing Games is the latest platform that the two superpowers arm-wrestle with each other.

Over the years with the rise of China, the Americans have been exerting diplomatic pressure on China over trades and politics. One of the contentious issues was on the China's policy on Yuan Reminbi).

Until July 20, 2006, China pegged Yuan to the dollar for straight eight years at 8.27 Yuan to 1 dollar.

When the America's deficit on the balance of payments worsened, the business sectors in U.S. lobbied hard to put through bills to exert tough measures on trades with China. Particularly highlighted was China's dollar-pegging policy which was viewed by Americans to be a wilful manipulation of Yuan's exchange rate for the absolute advantage of the Chinese exports. Responding to Americans, China quashed the allegations, calling them entirely baseless.

In a somewhat diplomatic compromise, President Bush eventually cleared China of currency manipulator allegations, saying there was no clear evidence. China then made it clear that it had its own agenda on revising the existing exchange policy. In a dramatic move on July 20, 2006, in the absence of a notice in advance, China dropped the dollar-pegging policy and replaced it with a managed-float exchange policy.

China has big muscles to flex now!

Alicia Sacramone of the U.S. competes on balance beam during the final of the women's artistic gymnastics event held at the National Indoor stadium on August 13, 2008. China won the gold, while United States won the silver and Romania the beonze.