In wake of the looming U.S. debt ceiling crisis, which threatens to stir up a global economic disaster, China is calling for the creation of a new international reserve currency to replace the present reliance on U.S. dollars as well as for steps to create a "de-Americanized world."
China also called for an end to the "pernicious impasse" in the U.S. over the raising the debt limit and ending the partial government shutdown, saying the world needed another reserve currency so nations could protect themselves "from the spillover of the intensifying domestic political turmoil in the United States," reports the LA Times.
Most countries hold their foreign exchange reserves in U.S. dollars because the currency is viewed as the world's most stable. However, China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, with about $1.3 trillion in Treasury bonds, and is concerned about the impact of a U.S. failure to raise the debt limit on those holdings.
With Washington still in a stalemate as the deadline to raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit on Oct. 17 draws closer, China's official state-run news agency published an editorial Sunday criticizing U.S. leadership.
"It is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world," wrote China's official Xinhua News Agency on Oct. 14.
"The cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising the debt ceiling has again left many nations' tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized," states Xinhua. "The world is still crawling its way out of an economic disaster thanks to the voracious Wall Street elites."
Toppling the dollar isn't enough today, however:
"Several cornerstones should be laid to underpin a de-Americanized world," explains Xinhua in the article. Along with a greater role for developing-market economies in both the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, "the authority of the United Nations in handling global hot-spot issues has to be recognized. That means no one has the right to wage any form of military action against others without a UN mandate."
"A self-serving Washington has abused its superpower status and introduced even more chaos into the world by shifting financial risks overseas, instigating regional tensions amid territorial disputes, and fighting unwarranted wars under the cover of outright lies," the commentary reads.