On my August 7, 2007 daily scroll through the Britain's Telegraph Online news publication, I discovered that a longtime fear of mine has become true. China has threatened to begin cashing-in on the money it has loaned the United States.

Under the Business section, I read the headline, "China Threatens Dollar Crash." For the first time in almost two decades, the United States is no longer the lone economic and military superpower in the world. China has been steadily rising to the top, but it has yet to apply economically enduring pressures that would force the United States of America to comply. And I thought, "so it begins." Today begins a new chapter in the saga of American history.

Nations normally comply from fear of economic sanctions from the United States of America. Now, the USA is in a quandary, and is now forced to watch our spending, borrowing, and other macroeconomic habits more closely. In today's Washington Post, referring to an undervalued and manipulated Chinese currency, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, said, "China needs, at the very least, a nudge,"

China has preemptively reacted to that scenario by basically threatening to nudge right back. In my opinion, sooner or later, this nudging back in forth may turn into a school yard economic fistfight. According to the US Treasury Department, in May 2007, The People's Republic of China owns $407.4 billion in American debt. That same report notes the United States of America currently has $2.1829 trillion in internationally owned debt.

Today in Shanghai, the Chinese have teamed up with their comrades to the north in Russia for the largest military exercise ever between the two nations. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) consists of Russia and China, as well as the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. If one recalls, the United States was expelled from Uzbekistan in 2005. The games will start tomorrow in China and move to Russia in the next week.

The exact details of the military exercises are outlined in the Kommersant, a Russian publication, in an article entitled "Maneuvers to Outflank US." This directly conflicts an article from Radio Free Europe that says these games are NOT DIRECTED at any third nation. Russia also plans to take the full financial burden for the deliberate showcase of unilateral military strength. These facts outlining Russia's attempt to return to world prominence are disturbing, but true.

The VOA reports,

At least 1,600 Chinese soldiers, 2,000 Russian military personnel and defense forces from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are part of this year's exercises called "Peace Mission 2007" taking place in the Russian Urals and in China's Xinjiang region.

Later on in the article, it is reported,

Analysts say Russia appears to be the driving force and is eager to steer the SCO toward a NATO-like defense alliance. This comes at a time when Moscow has deep differences with the Washington over the U.S. plan to deploy missile defense systems in the Czech Republic and Poland.

China Daily reports that Hu Jintao will be visiting the games staged in the former USSR, as well as the other five heads of state. At the summit taking place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the six nations will be signing a unilateral treaty based on "the principles of partnership, non-alliance, mutual trust, respect and equality to the diversity of cultures."

In retrospect, what does all of this mean? First of all, China has called our number economically. Secondly, six nations in Asia are suspected to be militarily preparing for action against the United States. Currently, the United States occupies, their neighbor, Afghanistan. China and Russia have collectively stuck out their economic chests and flexed their military muscles in an indirect challenge to American foreign policy.

For the Bush administration, this rise to power in the East may be an unwanted and inadvertent legacy. This is sure to become a rising issue in the last 18 months of President's Bush's administration as well as in the first 18 months and beyond of our next leader's presidency.

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