James Fallows on the US-China Relationship

Leslie Forman

Leslie is Wokai's Marketing Director.

James Fallows explains the financial ties between the US and China, in a way that's interesting and easy to understand, in this interview with Terry Gross from NPR. 

Some of the most interesting things I learned from this interview:

-The US depends on China a lot in the long run, but China can't help with the Detroit bailout or other urgent matters.

-China's very high savings rate, both among individual citizens and as a government, gives it special power in international economics.

-George W. Bush has been relatively good for China, because he's caused no real ripples in US-China relations. If the Chinese could have voted in this election, they likely would have re-elected him. 

I've written here about his work before, and I was especially excited to listen to this interview because I'd read about the process of recording it from 2:30-3:30 am Beijing time here on his blog.  

I'd like to be able to connect this more closely with Wokai, but I personally don't know enough about finance to do so. I'm really curious to hear your thoughts on this. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email at leslie.forman (@) wokai.org.  Thanks!

P.S. I also invite you to read this fascinating interview with James Fallows on The China Beat. His book, Postcards from Tomorrow Square, came out this week. 

Comments

[Meghan Gill]

Interesting recent article in the Times regarding US-China economic relations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/business/worldbusiness/08yuan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=china%20debt&st=cse

[emily wade]

yes