Didn't this happen before, in the 1980's, when the Japanese banks (owned by the governments) bought lots of US assets like highrise office buildings, etc? And then they had their own financial crises, and Americans bought them back for pennies on the dollar?
They took a bath on everything from Rockefeller Center to Pebble Beach golf course, even though all the "pundits" were playing the same game of cry wolf then as now.