The Chinese state media has accused U.S. President Barack Obama of using Beijing to deflect attention from his country's economic woes. The accusation, made by the Xinhua news agency, comes after Obama hit out at Chinese currency policy.

Now they've grown up, and so they're going to have to help manage this process in a responsible way, said Obama, at the Asia-Pacific Summit in Hawaii, where he urged China to play by global trade rules.

Further, he said that while there had been slight improvement (in the yuan) over the last year, it was not enough. The U.S. Senate, last month, approved a bill to impose punitive taxes on Chinese imports, if the yuan was not revalued.

In response, the Xinhua news agency reported that forcing the yuan to appreciate quickly could bankrupt Chinese companies without resolving trade deficit between the U.S. and China.

At a moment when the U.S. economy is fragile it appears that the Obama administration has few tools to bring China to heel, quickly. To further complicate matters, China is the U.S.'s top foreign creditor and its third-largest export market. Keeping that in mind, White House officials have revealed that Obama has spoken to Chinese President Hu Jintao, stating that American businesses and people were impatient and frustrated with China's economic policies.

Meanwhile, Hu Jintao made the keynote speech, reaffirming his country's commitment to regional and global economic cooperation. He called for improved global economic governance, new growth methods and promoting economic globalization and regional economic integration.

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