中国在欧洲的投资:购买国债

Why is China making this move?

Well, I guess if your neighbor’s house is on fire, I mean it's probably in your best interest to try to put it out.

But that doesn't seem to be shared by many other governments at the moment, they’re letting the markets decide. So why does China step in where it looks like others fear to tread.

Well it's, Chinese government is actually quite different. Chinese government is mostly a technocratic government which is too, well, I guess for good and bad, is probably unburdened by voters. For the other governments, they probably have to cater to the voters' need and it seems to be helping others may not necessarily be in best interests of the voters. But the… for the stability of the global economy, I believe that it is probably a good thing to put out the fire.

Is it the stability of the global economy that is driving this move by China or is it the fact that it earns some serious good will in these European capitals when it comes to doing trade investment deals down the line?

Well I guess both and actually it’s the same thing. Because for trades and if Spain is in turmoil which Europe, if Europe is in turmoil, it will make the collapse of the Lehman Brothers seems a minor event. So…

Isn’t this the job of IMF, though?

Well, to a large extent, yes. But, I mean to be quite honest; I mean IMF probably has extended quite a large money credit to Ireland, to Greece and so on so forth. And for IMF, it's actually under quite a lot of political pressure because people are asking whether they should help this country or not. In my opinion, I think it should definitely be help.

Ok, what do you think it’s going to mean overall for the European debt crisis, is it just drop in the back of what China is doing 'cause we actually don't know how much this spending?

Well, like someone who just got a heart attack, right? You need time for recover and anything that can buy time is probably a good thing. And with the vote of China's confidence, I mean the confidence of the market on the Europe debt properly will sorta subside for a little bit and the longer we have, the better, I mean, we can get out of the crisis.

It seems that if you read most the pundits, they still think there is going to be a default in Europe in 2011 that the crisis is not over yet and I guess Greece would be the most likely candidate, China is buying Greek bonds. Do you think it is gonna have any impact on China's finances, if there is a great default?

Well, I mean China has been investing quite a lot in the Greek debt and certainly there will be a haircut on the debt among the debt bond. But I mean, to regardless right, debt is only, I mean, Greece is only a ten-million-population country. So if U.S. and Europe and China jointly together I think it can save that country without too much trouble. So, well, unfortunately whether the US voters, it has any appetite for saving a remote country like Greece and another...

You can't expect that. That's political equation. And just very briefly, you think China will be buying more bonds and more bonds?

Well, if necessary, I think they would sort of sow reasonable solidarity to the rest of the world, because it is in everybody's interest to stop the Euro crisis from happening.