America borrows to keep growing. China grows to keep standing still. And Japan stands still to keep from falling apart.
America needs to import goods from abroad to satisfy the ever insatiable appetite of its consumers, its companies, and increasingly, its military. To pay for those imports, it needs to keep borrowing from abroad.
At 7 percent or more, Chinese economic growth is the envy of the world. Yet that growth is a necessary prerequisite for absorbing all the disparities and the divides that exist within that very large economy.