Made in China

Featured in

  • Published 20090901
  • ISBN: 9781921520761
  • Extent: 264 pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm)

FOR THE FIRST in history, a communist country is in a position to bring down global capitalism. The Chinese Communist Party, if it were to sell the $763 billion in US Treasury bonds it holds, would trigger a massive devaluation in those bonds and the value of the American dollar, thereby bringing the world economy to its knees. This situation occurs only twenty years after sledgehammers broke down the Berlin Wall, supposedly heralding the triumph of liberal democracy; and only a decade after the Asian financial crisis, which supposedly proved the superiority of western models of capitalism.

Of course, China’s Communism Version 2.0 will do nothing of the sort. The health of China’s economy, and ultimately the ability of the Chinese Communist Party to stay in power, depends on the health of global capitalism. In September 2008, as Japan reduced its exposure to US Treasury bonds by $12 billion, China increased its exposure by $43.6 billion. In the meantime, Chinese leaders have plaintively urged the American government to bolster the US economy and safeguard the value of China’s investments. As the American budget deficit rattles towards a trillion dollars, it is China’s two trillion dollars in foreign-exchange reserves that are seen as the salvation for the world economy. An often-repeated verse in China these days observes:

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

More from author

Reality beyond the whiteboard

EssayIn May 2003, a week after President Bush had declared victory in Iraq from the foredeck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, I made my first...

More from this edition

A short prehistory of the future

EssayAh, the old questions, the old answers, there's nothing like them!– Samuel Beckett, Endgame Above all, the bourgeoisie produces its own gravediggers.– Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto FOR...

End of another era

IntroductionWHEN THOUSANDS OF unemployed miners, steel, clothing and textile workers, their friends, families and organisers pushed through the glass doors of Old Parliament House...

Getting over globalisation

GR OnlineTHE IDEA OF globalisation never enjoyed popular support in developed nations and for that reason it will probably become another casualty of the global...

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.