After two days of talks in Washington, top U.S. and Chinese officials made progress on matters including financial services, the environment and aviation. But on the value of China's currency — which critics call undervalued — not much was accomplished.

That is decidedly good news. The same cannot be said about lack of action on another matter — the growing concern about the safety of Chinese food and health-product exports.

China has pegged its currency, the yuan, to the U.S. dollar but Washington wants Beijing to let the yuan rise. That would make Chinese goods more expensive and reduce the competitive pressure faced by American producers. China is using proceeds from its exports to buy U.S. Treasury bonds, which helps keep American interest rates low.

A dramatically higher yuan would hurt both countries. It would stall the Chinese economy and sock the United States with higher inflation and interest rates. And let's not forget that China is an important export market for Americans; U.S. shipments to China grew by about 240 percent between 2000 and 2006.

On the safety-and-health issue, toothpaste originating in China and containing diethylene glycol, a poison used in some antifreeze brands, has turned up in Panama, the Dominican Republican and Australia. So far, there's no evidence the products were shipped to the United States.

In addition, diethylene glycol mislabeled as harmless glycerin was used in cough syrup marketed in Panama, killing about 100 people. An unknown number of pets in the United States died after eating pet food tainted by an industrial ingredient, also originating in China.

In Washington, the Chinese pledged to improve regulation, but little substantive change is evident. Beijing has been criticized in a state-run newspaper, China Daily, but little about these issues has appeared in the Chinese-language press.

This is a classic example of an authoritarian regime, which seeks to clamp down on information, colliding with the requirements of a modern global economy, which depends on the free flow of information.

Beijing must reform its system of health-and-safety supervision or find its products blacklisted on world markets. As for currency reform, Beijing should continue to resist those in Washington who advocate policies that would do dramatically more harm than good.