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China-U.S. alliance crucial for recovery
U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan during an economic summit in Washington, DC.
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TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: Of course the Chinese aren't the only ones who buy U.S. government debt. But they do hold a huge chunk of it. With the Treasury Department having to finance bailouts and stimulus packages, the Obama administration's hoping Beijing will add to its purchases. That makes the talks that got started in Washington today between the world's biggest and one of the world's fastest-growing economies all the more important. Our Washington bureau chief John Dimsdale reports.
JOHN DIMSDALE: China is responsible for more than 80 percent of the U.S. trade deficit, not counting oil. And President Obama says there's a way to use the recession to shrink that imbalance.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: And as Americans save more and Chinese are able to spend more, we can put growth on a more sustainable foundation because just as China has benefited from substantial investment and profitable exports, China can also be an enormous market for American goods.
To realize that potential, Erin Ennis at the U.S. China Business Council, says American negotiators need only remind the Chinese of their dependence on the global economy.
ERIN ENNIS: I don't think that any of China's leaders have lost the point that while the discussion about a year ago was about whether China would be able to weather this recession better than anybody else because they had insulated themselves from it. The answer to that clearly was no.
But China's representatives bring their own agenda. They want assurances that U.S. government efforts to spend its way out of the recession won't hurt China's investments in U.S. Treasuries. Steven Schrage at the Center for Strategic and International Studies says China is exercising more economic muscle in its relations with the U.S.
STEVEN SCHRAGE: It started as the U.S. kinda lecturing China. Now China is sending shots across the bow with the United States saying we're not sure your currency is going to be stable in the months ahead. So there has been more of that push and pull, which is reflective of a mature relationship.
Mature and more complex, he adds.
In Washington, I'm John Dimsdale for Marketplace.
Here Read:
+ China Special: A new evil in our world / MountEverest.net:
"Think live lobsters in Chinese restaurant water tanks, waiting for you to walk in and order. Now imagine people in the place of the lobsters. This is not a joke. It's for real and as bad as it comes."
"According to the Canadian investigation, supported by media, state reports and international human right watch groups: there are 36 death camps in China, where organs are taken while prisoners - many young and healthy people abducted by authorities - are still alive."
"The procedure is simple. If you need a heart, a kidney, a brain or a new eye retina - you just contact one of the numerous hospitals advertising transplant services in China. They'll tell you what they have in stock, or direct you to check the supply straight with a court or a prison."
"There 'beating hearts' are waiting for you, most in their thirties or forties, unaware of their fate."
+ Deep Flaws, and Little Justice, in China's Court System / NY Times:
"... forced confessions remain endemic in a judicial system that faces pressure to maintain 'social stability' at all costs."
China is never going to buy significant amounts of American made products. We need to immediately disabuse ourselves of that notion. Moreover, any benefit to China is a loss for America. We need to tell obama that what the America needs is a broken, poor and dismembered China, and a reinvigorated and self-reliant America. Enough of this pabulum. What is wrong with us? Anyone who is not at war with China should be booted out of office!
