AlterNet: China Hates Us -- How Much Longer Will They Back Our Debt-Ridden Economy?

[marmar]

China Hates Us -- How Much Longer Will They Back Our Debt-Ridden Economy?

By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted April 3, 2009.

At worst, it could spell the end of America as a superpower and destroy the global economy as we know it.



It started with a joke, but quickly went viral everywhere from the South China Sea to the White House.

"We hate you guys," Luo Ping, director-general at the China Banking Regulatory Commission, wisecracked in New York last month, speaking of the U.S. habit of issuing trillions worth of the Treasury bills that China still considers safe havens. "Once you start issuing $1 trillion, $2 trillion ... we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys, but there is nothing much we can do."

That is, nothing much aside from flexing China's economic and military muscle, the latter of which it recently accomplished in the South China Sea when five Chinese vessels aggressively surrounded the USNS Impeccable, an unarmed surveillance ship spying in the internationally contested Spratly Islands.

The Impeccable turned firehoses on the encroaching ships, whose sailors nevertheless stripped down to their underwear and continued to move in as close as 25 feet from the ship.

Laughably terming the nearly naked Chinese display of territorial strength "provocative," a Pentagon spokesman complained that China, America's largest creditor and owner of the world's largest holding of U.S. Treasuries, and its marine vessels' bold actions "violated the requirement under international law to operate with due regard for the rights and safety of other lawful users of the ocean." .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/133251/china_hates_us_--_how_much_longer_will_they_back_our_debt-ridden_economy/

[D-Lee]

1. Here is a link to a helpful analysis of China's relationship to the US dollar

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/opinion/03krugman.html?ref=todayspaper

The link is to Krugman's column entitled "China’s Dollar Trap" in today's paper (4/3/09).

While I do not believe Krugman has all the answers (particularly about nationalizing banks -- in large part because it is an easy thing to say when one does not have the responsibility for the consequences which would follow, which I think he underestimates), this particular column is excellent.

[Soylent Brice]

2. how long? until they've bled us dry. then they'll dispose of the carcass.