Chinese Rocks

I'm living on chinese rocks
all my best things are in hock
I'm living on chinese rocks
everything is in the pawn shop

So goes the classic punk rock number written by Dee Dee Ramone with two lines by Richard Hell and stolen for awhile by Johnny Thunders.

Two days ago America's most lethal idiot, Vice President Richard "Dick" Cheney, who's currently on belligerent world tour, threw some barbs at one of America's biggest creditors (much thanks to the Bush Administration itself), China:

"The Chinese understand that a nuclear North Korea would be a threat to their own security," he told the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue, but "other actions by the Chinese government send a different message."

"Last month's anti-satellite test, and China's continued fast-paced military build-up are less constructive, and are not consistent with China's stated goal of a 'peaceful rise,'" Cheney said.

China shot down one of its own orbiting weather satellites in space with a ballistic missile, provoking an international outcry amid fears over satellite security.

Now, I'm no big fan of pretending nothing's happened and playing the patsy, but here's a known hawk and a terminally wrongheaded one at that going around threatening everybody in Asia that he can. While it appeared that the climax might have been a bomb attack that threatened Cheney in Afghanistan (and killed 14 or more human beings), it seems that China may have put the U.S. on notice in other ways:

China dismissed U.S. criticism of its military build-up on Tuesday, saying the world's most populous country was an important force for world peace.

Modest rejection, of course, but with China and their own single ruling Party, it's always about reading between the lines.

So today when there was a massive hit to the U.S. stock markets, due to a massive sell-off in the Shanghai stock market, I just have to wonder how much of an accident was it?

There are Nettertainment readers out there who know far more about the financial markets than I do, so please tell me, am I reading more into this than I should?