Business Channel 2006-11-01&04

Lots of countries, lots of businesses are plunging¹ money into China. General Motors has this factory in Shanghai. The Park Hyatt is building this project in Beijing. It's a process repeated thousands of times. And of course, China is also busy selling things overseas. So where does all this lead? Well, China has now built up foreign reserves of one trillion dollars. That's a thousand billion, most of it in US currency, where even a small policy shift could throw global finance into chaos².

What everyone worries about is that China begins shifting its reserve accumulation out of dollars and into some other currency, the obvious ones being the Euro and the Yen³.

That would force up those other currencies and potentially spark a run on the US dollar.

In theory, it could collapse⁴.

So let's put all this into perspective, if you take the mighty⁵ US Federal Reserve, it currently stands at 66 billion dollars and you put it, say, into this building, it would fit into the ground floor. The Chinese Reserves now would take up the whole building itself. Even if China shifted that money somewhere other than into currencies, for example, building up stockpiles of oil, the jolt⁶ to oil prices would affect almost everyone on the planet. China today promised to do nothing rash.

China will continue to act in a responsible manner and play a constructive⁷ role in global economic stability.

One Beijing-based economist⁸ says the US especially, is paranoid about China's intentions. But why, he said, would China want to disrupt the global economy when it's currently doing so well from it?

Hugh Reminton, CNN, Beijing.

1 plunging   

adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• War broke out again, plunging the people into misery and suffering. 战祸复发，生灵涂炭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He is plunging into an abyss of despair. 他陷入了绝望的深渊。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

3 yen   

n. 日元；热望

参考例句：

• He wanted to convert his dollars into Japanese yen.他想将美元换成日币。
• He has a yen to be alone in a boat.他渴望独自呆在一条船上。

4 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

5 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

6 jolt   

v.（使）摇动，（使）震动，（使）颠簸

参考例句：

• We were worried that one tiny jolt could worsen her injuries.我们担心稍微颠簸一下就可能会使她的伤势恶化。
• They were working frantically in the fear that an aftershock would jolt the house again.他们拼命地干着，担心余震可能会使房子再次受到震动。

7 constructive   

adj.建设的，建设性的

参考例句：

• We welcome constructive criticism.我们乐意接受有建设性的批评。
• He is beginning to deal with his anger in a constructive way.他开始用建设性的方法处理自己的怒气。

8 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。