Our Indebtedness to China?

[SHRED]

What happens when China demands to "repatriate" Taiwan?
Or when China really starts getting squeezed for fuel as petroleum gets scarcer?

Will they threaten "calling in the notes", on our debt to them, as a weapon?
Could they seriously do this without taking too much of a toll on their own economy?
Have the Republicans, through their debt ridden trade policies, left us in a vulnerable security position?
How much of this is the Repubs fault?

Could someone more versed than me, clue me in here?

:eyes:

Thanks

[1932]

1. They need a healthy US to buy their stuff as much as we need them to

buy our debt.

[acmejack]

2. I have long been concerned about economic warfare.

The Chinese are excellent at conceiving and executing long range plans. They will not hesitate to use our debt as a club when it suits their interests. They would be foolish to ignore such obvious leverage and we know they are anything but fools.

[Hosnon]

3. I''m less worried about China knowing the size of our debt to them...

Owe the bank $10,000, it owns you, owe the bank $10,000,000 and you own it.

[tularetom]

4. China needs the US to buy their crap

It's really a circle jerk. They loan us the money then we give it right back to them in exchange for cheaply made products. If they stop lending us money they have no market for the goods they produce. Until the rest of the world gets rich from US corporations outsourcing more and more work that is. THen you'll see a majr tightening of the money supply from China and Japan.

[Horus45]

5. It's so hard to believe...

that when Clinton left office our debt was about $550 Billion and now 5 years later our debt has ballooned to nearly $8 Trillion.
Lots of criminals are getting rich.

[pushycat]

7. Is there any way to recover any of our treasury from the thieves?

Can individuals in positions of responsibility ever be held personally liable for the loss of a US resource? For instance, a bunch of cash air-freighted to Paul Bremer in Baghdad just disappeared and no records exist detailing its handling. Can he be held personally responsible for the unaccountable cash?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bremer
<snip>
On January 30, 2005, an official report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, cited by Time, stated that $9 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq might have disappeared in frauds, corruption and other misbehaviour. On one particular salary register, only 602 names among 8206 could be verified. As another cited example, the Coalition Authority authorised Iraqi officials to postpone declaring the reception of 2,5 billions of dollars, which the provisiory government had received in spring through the Oil for Food program. <9> <10>

Bremer wrote an eight-page reply to deny the accusations according to The Time article stated that, during the IG's inquiry, Bowen's people refused to interview Bremer's deputies, and the IG's report failed to mention that Bremer and his people worked under extraordinary conditions, faced a high turnover rate, and had insufficient number of personnel to carry out their rebuilding and humanitarian relief efforts. Bremer's claim that Bowen's staff made no attempt to interview his staff is at odds with the detailed account of the external auditors, of their attempts to meet with Bremer and his staff. In the management notes they describe how some of the CPA's senior staff, including Bremer himself, just would not make themselves available to meet with the auditors. Others, like George Wolfe, the CPA's de facto treasurer, showed a total lack of cooperation.<snip>

[rockymountaindem]

6. I'm glad to see people on this thread aren't buying into the hype

Yes, we owe a lot of money to China. I asked about this yesterday. It seems that out of all the debt we have (8 trillion) we owe 226 billion to China. A hefty chunk, but not a large percentage of either the debt or the GDP.

Posters upthread made two good points. 1) China would be nowhere without a healthy US to buy up all their exports. 2) If America crashed, China would never see a dime of that money. Therefore, it is not in China's interest to undo the US economy.

[Clutch Cargo]

8. If someone owes you 10.00

and refuses to pay, then they got you for the bill.

If you owe someone 1,000,000 and refuse to pay, you got them by the balls.

[Egalitariat]

9. Buyers of US debt don't have the option to "call in the notes"

The can sell the notes on the open market or wait until they mature, but there is no option to demand payment.