China warns Soros against ‘declaring war’ on its currency

Soros is a man intimately familiar with currency crises

Not long after billionaire George Soros forecast a so-called hard landing for the Chinese economy, Beijing fired back by calling out the high-profile investor, warning him of betting against its currency, according to media reports Tuesday.

“Soros’ challenge against the renminbi and Hong Kong dollar is unlikely to succeed, there is no doubt about that,” said a government official in an opinion piece widely cited by several media outlets.

The article headlined, ”Declaring war on China’s currency? Ha ha,” was published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party which is widely viewed as Beijing’s propaganda tool.

A translation of the Mandarin version of the editorial linked by ZeroHedge includes references to the U.S. suffering from a “Dutch disease” and “financial predators.”

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Soros’ ties to seismic currency bets date back to 1992 when he accurately wagered that the pound would fall in value, forcing the British government to withdraw the currency from the European exchange rate mechanism. He also successfully bet against the Thailand baht ahead of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, which pushed several Asian economies to brink of sovereign default.

Although Soros hasn’t directly threatened to bet against China’s yuan, his reputation as the investor who broke the Bank of England might have been enough to draw Beijing’s attention.

Full article: China warns Soros against ‘declaring war’ on its currency (MarketWatch)