A few of the privations of the Chinese were listed: Heating, housing, vegetable oil, and a clean environment. I'm not sure if these things are related to trade imbalances so much as overpopulation.<p>So China is holding a lot of bad paper. I don't know why in god's name you would buy debt from the US when it's basically low-yield junk, and has been for a while. The old saying is: When you owe your banker a 1000 dollars, you're in trouble. When you owe him a million dollars, he's in trouble. So China's in trouble.<p>Their odd dollar-centric twist on mercantilism isn't likely to help them in the long term: Once the export markets (and jobs) dry up, the people will have all the iPods they want, but the heating/oil/living space/environment problems aren't likely to be solved.