Our national debt is less than 5 yr maturity. We are essentially on an ARM. Financial leverage works both ways.
By reducing purchasing China can easily push our interest rates higher quickly.
Its arrogance, in this article, to think we can push the East around financially anymore. Those days are behind us now.
Again, not sure why you think the Chinese eating all the dollars they have in order to raise our Treasury rate up by a few notches is bad. Might be the best thing to happen to us.
Push interest rates higher? Newsflash, the FED manipulates interest rates, and have held them artifically low for at least the last 5 years. Also, if we told China to go suck an egg on the debt they hold, what are they gonna do? We buy all thier junk. They would be back plowing fields with sticks and oxen, without a market here.