BEIJING: China is passive on the value of the US dollar as the level doesn’t affect the nation’s economy, central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said, rebuffing criticism that the government is devaluing the yuan.

“It’s like watching a tournament,” Zhou said at the BusinessWeek CEO Forum in Beijing today. “We just watch the game. Regardless who wins or loses, the issue of whether the winner or loser benefits the spectator doesn’t arise.”

Zhou’s comments came hours after a US Congressional hearing where lawmakers charged China with preventing gains in its currency to provide a subsidy for exporters. Robert Mundell, a Nobel laureate in economics, said at the Beijing conference that the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cuts and a weakening dollar have helped secure China’s economic recovery.

The level of the dollar is contingent on the global and US economy, Zhou said today. China has kept the yuan about 6.83 per dollar since July 2008 after allowing a 21% gain over the previous three years. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at the hearing in Washington today that he’s “quite confident” China will move to relax controls on the currency.

Concerns about the US economy and rising government debt have pushed the trade-weighted Dollar Index down 7.2% this year. Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser yesterday said that the decline in the US currency is a “reversal of the run-up after the panic” during the global financial and economic crisis.