Treasury China Report: Kettles Are Black

The US Treasury Dept has declared in its report to Congress on international economic and exchange rate policies that Chinese policies dangerously distort the global economic playing field. To wit:

"Current Chinese policies," the Treasury Department said in a report to Congress on Tuesday, "are highly distortionary and pose a risk to China's economy, its trading partners and global economic growth."
(NYT)

Substitute "America" for "China" in that sentence and you have a more accurate characterization of what's going on in the global economy. Amazingly, the US appears particularly exercised about China's holding of $600 billion in US Treasury securities - which, of course, is what underpins the financial solvency of the American government and economy. If China starts to sell those securities, the dollar will plummet, the US will be unable to finance its $600+ billion current-account deficit, and the world economy will face a significant likelihood of what economists like to call a "hard landing".

So what exactly is Treasury trying to accomplish here? Probably just paving the way for some protectionist anti-dumping measures against Chinese exports. Same old same old.