Quote Originally Posted by maladroit
china isn't entirely dependant on the usa...about 1/4 of china's exports go to the usa, and 1/10 of china's imports are from the usa...more importantly, the exports are not controlled by the government, and it is doubtful that US tarriffs would cause a significant reduction in trade
A simple Keynesian multiplier will express that there is much more than the nominal value of net exports gained by trading with the US. Where injection equals leakage, the first step will be 1 to 1, but steps 2 through infinity spur even more economic growth in terms of GDP that you must take into consideration. Because they are not a debtor nation, and because their marginal propensity to consume domestic goods has a very very very small pool (in terms of population) to choose from, China is too fragile to cause any "ruckus" so to speak.

in 2000, china held $60 billion in US treasury notes...today, china controls more than $600 billion...that's the biggest increase of any foreign lender in history...china can tell uncle sam to sit down and mind his manners
Japan has a much higher holding, are we also controlled by Japan? At best there is a stalemate in regards to hegemonic attitude from the US.