China’s $1.5 Trillion Bet

Understanding China’s External Portfolio

May 13, 2009

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Overview

This is an update to the January 2009 Working Paper China’s $1.7 Trillion Bet. Download the original paper [PDF].

Brad W. Setser

Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow

Arpana Pandey

China is now by far the United States’ largest creditor. Its treasury portfolio recently surpassed that of Japan’s, and it has long held more agency (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) bonds than any other country. Never before has a nation as poor as China provided so much financing to a country as rich as the United States. In this Center for Geoeconomic Studies Working Paper, Brad W. Setser and Arpana Pandey estimate the true scale of China’s U.S. portfolio and examine how the pace of growth and composition of China’s portfolio have evolved over time.

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