Their purchases are not going to have much end effect. The Panama Canal is not really that significant to us.
The problem is the CCP is riding a wave. They got a lot of $$s when they took over Hong Kong, so it has made China look good. But they have a huge bubble in their economy right now, and they are trying to time it's burst till after the 2008 Olympics. They have a huge water polition problem, http://www.clo2.com/reading/waternews/China_water_crisis.html
which means they only get 1/4 of the water per person the average person (in the world)gets. Which is probably close to 1/10th the water Americans and Euros get. Imagine putting up with that.
Then add in the gender explosion:
http://english.people.com.cn/200209/27/eng20020927_104013.shtml
Either the Chinese guys learn to shower with a buddy or there are some big problems ahead.
Actually it was Bill Bennett who was discussing this. It has come up repeatedly on his show for a while. I think the situation does warrant some watching. That said, I used to work for a company that did business in Asia and I agree that with the coming olympics there is a definite wish to make everything at least appear great economically.