WASHINGTON (AP) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday that China is moving too slowly to overhaul its currency system and to crack down on copyright piracy, two factors that American businesses blame for the soaring trade deficit with China.

Paulson said the administration would continue to push China to move more quickly, but he cautioned that any protectionist backlash in this country would end up harming the U.S. economy.

“We must not heed the siren song of protectionism, trying to reduce the losses of the present by sacrificing the opportunities of the future,” Paulson said in a speech on trade delivered to the Economic Club of Washington.

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