China’s dollar dilemma.docVIP

窗体顶部 China’s dollar dilemma China’s dollar dilemma Currency resources Beijing is likely to resist domestic criticism of investing its foreign exchange reserves in low-yielding dollar assets - but it will ask Washington for something in return, writes Geoff Dyer The flotation of Blackstone in June 2007 has already gone down as one of the symbolic events in America’s financial bubble - the end-of-an-era deal when some of Wall Street’s savviest insiders decided to cash out. Yet the listing of the private equity group could also be the turning point in another chapter of financial history; one that will shape the world that emerges from the current crisis: the moment when China really began to question its deep financial entanglement with the US. China Investment Corporation, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, had not even begun formally operating when it spent $3bn on a 9.9 per cent stake in the private equity group. With Blackstone’s shares down 84 per cent since flotation, CIC’s new executives have become the target of furious attacks by bloggers who think China was conned. “They are worse than wartime traitors,” says one recent chat-room posting. “Blind worship of the US by so-called ‘experts’,” complains another. China’s near $2,000bn (￡1,380bn, €1,560bn) in reserves, the world’s largest, are often viewed outside the country as a great strength - an insurance policy against economic turbulence. But within China, they are increasingly seen by the public and even some policymakers as something of an albatross - a huge pool of resources not being used at home that will plunge in value if the US dollar collapses. Why, people ask, should such a relatively poor country bankroll such a rich one? Even at the elite level, the sense of frustration occasionally bubbles over. “We hate you guys,” Luo Ping, a director-general at the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), complained last week on a visit to New York. “Once you start issuing $1-$2 trillion . . . we know