Beholden to Beijing.

"As the U.S. has grown ever reliant on foreign central banks to finance its trade and budget deficits, the question arises: Could foreign governments, like China's, one day use this clout to influence U.S. foreign policy?" Greg Ip of the Wall Street Journal posed that question in the paper's April 26 issue, and elaborated on it by offering a disturbing--and plausible--scenario.

"Imagine a standoff between the U.S. and China over Taiwanese independence," posits Ip. "What would happen if China stopped buying U.S. bonds, or sold them outright? As bond prices fell, their yields, which move in the opposite direction, would rise. Mortgage rates would rise, depressing home sales and weakening the economy."

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, not one usually given to public expressions of piety, underscored our government's growing dependence on Beijing by suggesting that our leaders--along with those of several other nations--pray each day that Chinese ruler Hu Jintao remain healthy and exercise good judgment in managing the Communist behemoth's economy. He also suggested that Americans ask divine forgiveness "for all the bad words we used in recent years to describe China's leaders--terms like 'Butchers of Beijing.'"

Foreign central banks, led by China and Japan, now hold roughly $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds and bills--about a quarter of publicly held U.S. debt. China is about to displace the U.S. as Japan's largest trading partner. As Washington heedlessly piles up public debt, and pursues a trade policy that results in an ever-growing trade deficit, China's financial influence over our future grows. It's not unreasonable to fear that someday, rather than merely praying for China, our government will put us in a position in which we will be forced to kneel to China.