Nobel economics laureate Robert Mundell, known as "father of the euro" for his contributions to foreign exchange theory, said Friday there is no reason for China to change its much-criticized currency peg to the U.S. dollar. My position, since 1994, has been strongly against changing the exchange rate," Mundell said in a lecture organized by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "China has had a dollar anchor for over 10 years, and it's a winning policy." China strictly controls its currency's exchange rate with a de-facto peg of 8.28 yuan to the U.S. dollar. Washington has strongly argued that the rate is too low and has fueled the ballooning U.S. trade deficit -- an argument also taken up by U.S. businesses hurt by Chinese competition, such as textile makers. Mundell argued, however, that any change by China -- whether a one-off revaluation of the exchange rate or a shift to a floating rate -- wouldn't be in China's own interests, and would in fact have little effect on the root causes of America's dissatisfaction. "Behind this there is a real phenomenon: China's competitive shock," he said, comparing the recent growth of low-cost manufacturing in China to Japan's economic rise in the 1950s and 1960s. But Mundell said this shock "isn't a monetary issue and can't be addressed by monetary measures," such as the exchange rate.