Acting like grown-ups

China wasted no time in crafting its typically indignant response to US President Barrack Obama's demands that this country act like a grown-up in global affairs.

In harsher words than he has used before on China, Obama ended the Asia-Pacific leaders summit in Hawaii on Monday by calling for China to act like an adult on global agreements. Specifically Obama criticized China for its undervalued currency, which economists say has given China the upper hand in global trade by making Chinese goods and labor artificially cheaper than those of competing nations.

China's message to Obama? Stop playing politics with US-China relations. In a commentary, the official government news agency Xinhua said Obama is simply using China as a politically convenient scapegoat for American problems.

"Squeezing China, especially on the yuan, is an old trick in the run-up to [the] US presidential election," Xinhua wrote. "Such a tactic of scapegoating others may attract some voters' attention, but is definitely no answer to America's real problems."