Chinese authorities warn Soros from speculating against the renminbi

Chinese authorities on Wednesday warned billionaire investor George Soros not to bet against the country´s currency, the renminbi.

In an unusual step, in a front page opinion article the People´s Daily - the Communist Party´s mouthpiece - said "Soros´s war on the renminbi and the Hong Kong dollar cannot possibly succeed - about this there can be no doubt," the Financial Times reported.

The article was penned by a researcher from the Chinese commerce ministry and entitled "Declaring war on China´s currency? Ha ha."

In remarks to Bloomberg TV in the previous week, Soros - who had become famous for successfully speculating against the UK pound in 1992 - said China lay at the heart of the drop in global stocks this year.

Soros also said that in the short-term the slowdown in China´s economy was a greater threat to its neighbours´ economies than to its own, due to the deflationary impact of falling commodity prices.

"Reckless speculations and vicious shorting will face higher trading costs and possibly severe legal consequences," the People´s Daily threatened.

Asia´s largest economy had lost $700bn of international reserves over the last 18 months to $3.3trn, as investors reacted to the end of the 'one way´ bet on a stronger renminbi after nearly a decade and expectations increased for policy tightening in the US.