At the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the organisation responsible for man- aging China’s $2,850bn in foreign exchange reserves, a multi- coloured globe sits in the middle of a large trading floor.
For those suspicious that China harbours mercantilist, zero-sum designs on global resources, it is an ornament worthy of a Bond villain’s lair. In the US, in particular, officials from across the political spectrum have expressed concern that – in any future confrontation – Beijing could leverage its position as the single largest foreign owner of US Treasury securities.
In a March 2009 conversation with Kevin Rudd, Australia’s then prime minister, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, hinted at that anxiety.