Washington needs to do more to address its large trade deficit with China as appreciation of the yuan can have only a limited impact, a government economist said in comments published on Monday.

Chen Dongqi, vice head of the Academy of Macroeconomic Research, cited the fact that China's surplus with the United States had persisted despite the yuan rising more than 7 percent in the past two years.

"This shows that there is no obvious relation between yuan appreciation and the surplus," Chen, whose institute falls under the government's top planning agency, said in the Financial News.

Chen said the United States should take steps to increase its savings ratio so as to trim imports, and echoed a long-standing government line that Washington should ease or scrap controls on high-tech exports to China.

"The growth and balance of bilateral trade should be based upon free choice and fair trade," said Chen.