BEIJING, China - November 8, 2010 - Washington's latest move to print more money is a form of indirect currency manipulation that could lead to a new round of currency wars and even global economic collapse, a leading Chinese newspaper warned on Monday.

The United States last week announced it would inject an extra $600 billion into its banking syatem in its latest effort to correct a collapsing economy, prompting criticism from a number of countries, notably China and Germany.

The overseas edition of the Communist Party publication The People's Daily wrote in a front-page commentary that this quantitative easing was bad for China and bad for the world.

"In essence this is an uncontrolled increase in money supply, equal to indirect exchange rate manipulation," Shi Jianxun of Shanghai's Tongji University wrote in the guest commentary.

The U.S. Federal Reserve's actions will "touch off a global competition to devalue currencies... (leading to) a currency war and trade protectionism, threatening the global economic recovery", Shi wrote. "Exchange rate wars are in fact trade wars, and if they set off a trade war it won't only threaten the global economy, it will perhaps cause a collapse... and everyone's interests will be harmed," the academic added.