Part of the article linked by Tom Brosz said:

>In January 2005, China and Hong Kong combined to
>hold $734.6 billion U.S. in foreign currency reserves.
>China's big four banks hold an estimated $450 billion
>U.S. in bad debt. Industry wide, Standard & Poors
>estimates total Chinese bad loan debt at $656 billion
>U.S. Notice how close the two numbers are? Take
>Hong Kong's reverves out of the mix and the bad
>loans held by Chinese banks exceeds the amount
>of the country's foreign reserves. From a balance
>sheet perspective, the country is broke. Bad debt
>exceeds cash reserves.

Does this mean the U.S. has screwed China out of half
a trillion dollars? Why aren't the Chinese furious and
demanding compensation? What is the form of this
bad debt?

If you travel around the San Francisco Bay Area near
San Jose, you'll notice lots-and-lots of empty office
buildings. These buildings are the relics of the Dot Com.
Some of them (big multi-floor modern office buildings)
have been vacant for almost 5 years. These buildings
will probably remain empty until someone tears them
down and/or converts them into condos or apartments.
A question I ask: Who are the hapless suckers that
own these white elephants? Could it be the Chinese?

Gary