Chinese leaders have expressed fear that the United States may default on its debt, threatening the security of Chinese investments in the US.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told US Secretary of State John Kerry at an Asian summit that Beijing is “highly concerned” about Washington’s debt ceiling problem, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.
A US State Department official confirmed the conversation between Li and Kerry. The official said Kerry insisted the fiscal impasse “is a moment in Washington politics” and expressed the White House’s commitment to resolving the issue.
China has issued repeated warnings about the danger of a US default.
China is the largest foreign holder of US government debt and has roughly 60 percent of its $3.5 trillion foreign currency reserves invested in US assets.
Kerry was attending the East Asia Summit in Brunei, in place of President Barack Obama after the US leader was forced to cancel his trip because of a budget dispute with Congress that has resulted in a partial shutdown of the government.
Many people are concerned of catastrophic global consequences if Congress and Obama cannot agree by next week to raise the government’s debt ceiling.
A recent Gallup poll has shown that only 18 percent of Americans are satisfied with the way the nation is being governed, which is the lowest government satisfaction rating in the organization™s history of asking the question since 1971.
A majority of Americans also say the country needs a third major party because the Democratic and Republicans parties do such a poor job in resolving the country™s problems.
AHT/AGB
Copyright: Press TV