20 years is way too long. Here's some stats
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global...y/FA23Dj01.html
"China recycles trade surplus into US Treasury bonds
American companies may have forgotten what Henry Ford propounded when he first built his Model T: If you do not pay high enough wages to your workers, they can't afford to buy your product. One simple basis for that Bush boom is that China is recycling its US$100 billion-plus trade surplus with the US back into dollars, and especially into US Treasury bonds. Almost half of the US Treasury bonds are now owned in Asia. So China is financing Bush's bold economic experiment: running two or more wars simultaneously with a huge budget and trade deficit, and equally huge tax handouts for the richest Americans.
One has to question the long-term economic rationale for China of putting its long-term assets into very low-interest bonds in a currency that has already dropped recently by a third - and is going to drop even more. It certainly makes strategic sense: if push came to shove over, for example, the Taiwan Strait, all Beijing has to do is to mention the possibility of a sell order going down the wires. It would devastate the US economy more than any nuclear strike the Chinese could manage at the moment. "
China Issues US$78 BLN Of Treasury Bonds In 2003
http://au.news.yahoo.com/040130/3/nibj.html
CHINA TO ISSUE EQUIVALENT OF US$4.6 BLN IN T-BONDS
http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/5/8/54028985.html
CHINA'S CENTRAL BANK QUICKENS MONEY WITHDRAWAL
http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/9/5/54130559.html
China float might hit US Treasuries-PIMCO's Keller
http://www.forbes.com/markets/bonds...rtr1004460.html
China is an important buyer of U.S. Treasury securities, holding $119.4 billion of them at the end of April, U.S. Treasury Department figures show.
China's New 'Self-Defense' Tool: U.S. Bonds
http://www.iht.com/IHT/PS/98/ps040398a.html
http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/73234/1/
China is also using its large foreign currency reserves--a total of $356 billion--to buy more U.S. treasury bonds, which provide U.S. investors with capital for re-investment
http://wwwc.house.gov/International...08/bian2021.htm
The People?s Republic of China presently receives approximately $4 billion each year from American taxpayers in the form of interest income on U.S. Treasury bonds held by the Chinese government. The PRC also enjoys a $100 billion annual trade surplus with the United States, giving them an estimated $400 billion current account. Yet the government of China continues its discriminatory evasion of payment to American bondholders. It is the position of the Chinese government that China should not have to honor their nation?s full faith and credit sovereign obligations if they choose not to. Such an insular worldview, flaunting the flagrant disregard of established principles of international trade and commerce, will not serve the interests of the PRC in the community of nations and is inconsistent with the status of the PRC as a most favored trading partner and member of the World Trade Organization. Such a posture can only act to harm the long term interests of both the United States and China.
The Economy:US to buy back national debt
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business...nomy/411973.stm
It now says it will begin repurchasing Treasury bonds before they fall due, as early as next February, cutting back on the $3.6 trillion (£2.4 trillion) it owes to the public.
US Dollar Implosion - Part II
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorial...ield120503.html
Asians Aren't Dumping U.S. Treasuries -- Yet
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/new...id=aCvJZvr6BM4I
China also has emerged a key U.S. Treasury holder. Maintaining its 8.3 peg to the U.S. dollar means buying lots of dollar assets. Politicians and manufacturers who complain that Beijing manipulates its currency to gain an unfair advantage fail to appreciate its role in holding down U.S. borrowing costs.
China Now Second In Oil Consumption
China's fast-growing economy has overtaken Japan to become the world's second largest consumer of crude oil after the US
http://www.ruggedelegantliving.com/change/a/002062.html
China has total of 270 million cellular users as of the end of 2003 and around 60 million new users were added in the same year. See:
http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/do...tent_259693.htm (the news in 08/2003)
Broadband users in China:17.4 million. see:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04...ecommunications
China produced around 225 million tons of iron and steel and imported other 35 million tons in 2003 for the construction.
See:
http://www.worldsteel.org/media/wsif/wsif2003.pdf
55% of the world cement (Another infrastructure construction index) was used in China. See
http://www.economist.com/displaysto...tory_id=2446908
More that 13 million of PCs were sold in China in 2003. See
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040212/tech_china_pcs_1.html
International trade in 2003
China topped 840B$ (import < export) in 2003. See:
http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/do...tent_294145.htm
Mcdonads?s Business in China:
http://breaking.tcm.ie/2004/02/26/story135939.html
China has more than 400B$ reserve. See:
http://www.china.org.cn/e-company/0.../page031222.htm
China has 160B$ external debt. Reserve >> debt
Here's world military spending
http://www.cdi.org/budget/2004/worl...ry-spending.cfm
China is also pushing Europe to lift the Arms embargo so they can buy more high tech weapons and tech transfers. Imagine what will happen if they got a copy of the Euro Fighter and started mass producing.
http://www.contumacy.org/bbs/index....ames;read=26893
http://www.euobserver.com/index.pht...3&aid=14196
They also got their first batch of SU30MKK from Russia.
http://www.kanwa.com/edaily.htm
China more than doubling budgeted military spending this year
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040423060406.hm15bwqn.html
China's official defense budget in 2004 is more than 25 billion dollars.
But when off-budget funding for foreign weapons system imports is included, total defense-related expenditures this year should soar to between 50 and 70 billion dollars, said Richard Lawless, the deputy undersecretary of defence.