You bring up a good point about China's buying US Treasury bonds. The article also warned about China's ending up paying the salaries of U.S. government workers. All this is true right now, however. The U.S. does use the money China paid in buying Treasury bonds to make up the shortfall in its budget (the US budget deficit), which includes things spending on the U.S. military, government workers' salaries, etc. It may be hard to believe, but true nonetheless that the salaries of US soldiers in Iraq is currently being paid in part by Chinese money. What China gets in return, of course, is interest payments on the US Treasury bonds it holds. Unfortunately for America, US budget deficits are projected to be $500 bil. a year for as far as the eye can see, so America will be making interest payments to China for many years to come.