Even $3 Trillion Can’t Buy China Love or Good PR
China’s $3.3 trillion of currency reserves are a nice thing to have when you want to polish your image. Even if money can’t buy you love, it sure can buy lots of positive buzz. The most-populous nation has been throwing tens of billions of dollars at its prestige deficit for a decade, all part of an effort to enhance China’s soft power, something of which the U.S., for all its crises, has a surplus. Why else would Chinese dissidents head to U.S. shores, or embassies, for shelter? Why do so many wealthy Chinese, and government reserve managers, see the dollar and the U.S. legal system as a haven?