Today, at a Clinton Global Initiative event, Bill Clinton said that “the reason some of us are worried about China is we depend on you to buy our debt.”
Bill Clinton: “The reason some of us worry about China is we depend on you to buy our debt. However, I tried to be more Chinese when I was President and I saved a lot of money, so.”
Those people include Hillary Clinton, who encouraged China to continue buying U.S. debt in 2010:
“China has made a ‘wise’ choice by buying United States debt instruments, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday in Beijing, where senior officials from both powers are meeting for two days of talks. In an interview with Chinese television, Clinton also said that at some point China would have to invest more at home.”
And in 2009, Clinton said the U.S. would rely on the Chinese to finance our deficits:
CLINTON: “As our government goes into deeper deficit in order to fund this stimulus, we are relying on the Chinese Government to continue to buy our debt.”
Hillary Clinton even expressed her gratitude for the Chinese government “continued confidence in U.S. treasuries”:
CLINTON: “And I appreciate greatly the Chinese government’s continuing confidence in the United States treasuries. I think that is a well- grounded confidence. We have every reason to believe that the United States and China will recover, and that, together, we will help to lead the global recovery.”
In fact, while Clinton served as Secretary of State, Chinese holdings of U.S. debt rose by over 60 percent – increasing from $744.2 billion to $1.2142 trillion, according to the Department of Treasury.