[ccarpenterg]

It's low in terms of the Yuan's purchase power vis a vis the US dollar.

So the Chinese need more Yuan to buy the same products/services from the US. And in contrast, Americans need less US dollars to buy the same products/services from China.

[jonathankoren]

I understand how exchange rates work. What I’m confused about is claim that this is an eleven year low.

The article claims an exchange rate of 7.0391 CNY to 1 USD is an eleven year low, yet the 52 week range is 6.6704, and the five year low is below 6.2976. Typically, these charts show closes rather than intraday ranges, which further ads confusion about the claim.

[locust101]

Calling it lowest ever means that you can get more yuans than ever in 11 years for 1 dollar. If you look at the chart, it clearly shows that this is the maximum yuan amount you can get for 1 USD in at least 5 years.

[sokoloff]

Right. In other words, "the value of 1 yuan is the lowest in 11 years in terms of how many dollars it can buy..."

[Fjolsvith]

So perhaps the CCP is actually trying to keep American goods and services out of China while delivering Chinese goods and services to the US. Sort of a way of cementing their trade imbalance in defiance to Trump.