http://www.straitstimes.com/Overcomi...ry_387854.html
http://www.csis.org/component/option...,view/id,2069/
'We heard across the board - in private - substantial, continuing and rising concern,' Representative Mr Mark Kirk said after a trip to China that included talks with government officials and central bank chief Dr Zhou Xiaochuan.
'It's clear that China would like to diversify from its dollar investments,' the lawmaker said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank.
[..]
Mr Kirk traveled with Representative Mr Rick Larsen, a member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, who also painted a less gloomy picture of Chinese officials' views.
[..]
Mr Kirk said that Chinese leaders were sharply critical in private of the US Federal Reserve's policy of 'quantitative easing' - a form of flooding the financial system with cash, which critics deride as printing imaginary money.
[..]
Mr Kirk, a former diplomat who remains an active reservist in the US Navy, is seen as a rising star in the Republican Party and is eyeing a run next year for Mr Obama's former US Senate seat in Illinois.
He said he told the Chinese that the budget deficit could be even bigger than predicted, due in part to the rising costs to the US economy of health care.
'One of the messages I had - because we need to build trust and confidence in our number one creditor - is that the budget numbers that the US government has put forward should not be believed,' Mr Kirk said.
'Congress is actually going to spend quite a bit more,' he said.
Mr Larsen, a Democrat from Washington state who co-chairs the congressional US-China Working Group with Mr Kirk, agreed that Chinese leaders were seeking a signal from the United States on taming the giant deficit.
But Mr Larsen said the major lesson he took home was that China, contrary to some US critics' views, was not trying to dethrone the United States as a major world power.
'The Chinese leaders that we met with were very interested in seeing the United States be successful,' Mr Larsen said.
'They were not looking to themselves to lead the global economic recovery; they were looking to the United States to lead that recovery,' he said.
'It's clear that China would like to diversify from its dollar investments,' the lawmaker said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank.
[..]
Mr Kirk traveled with Representative Mr Rick Larsen, a member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, who also painted a less gloomy picture of Chinese officials' views.
[..]
Mr Kirk said that Chinese leaders were sharply critical in private of the US Federal Reserve's policy of 'quantitative easing' - a form of flooding the financial system with cash, which critics deride as printing imaginary money.
[..]
Mr Kirk, a former diplomat who remains an active reservist in the US Navy, is seen as a rising star in the Republican Party and is eyeing a run next year for Mr Obama's former US Senate seat in Illinois.
He said he told the Chinese that the budget deficit could be even bigger than predicted, due in part to the rising costs to the US economy of health care.
'One of the messages I had - because we need to build trust and confidence in our number one creditor - is that the budget numbers that the US government has put forward should not be believed,' Mr Kirk said.
'Congress is actually going to spend quite a bit more,' he said.
Mr Larsen, a Democrat from Washington state who co-chairs the congressional US-China Working Group with Mr Kirk, agreed that Chinese leaders were seeking a signal from the United States on taming the giant deficit.
But Mr Larsen said the major lesson he took home was that China, contrary to some US critics' views, was not trying to dethrone the United States as a major world power.
'The Chinese leaders that we met with were very interested in seeing the United States be successful,' Mr Larsen said.
'They were not looking to themselves to lead the global economic recovery; they were looking to the United States to lead that recovery,' he said.
http://www.csis.org/component/option...,view/id,2069/
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