You seem to have a point in stating that the U.S. engineered the Asian Crisis.
However, there are others who lay the blame on the uncertainties associated with the forthcoming EMU. These uncertainties caused a flight of a significant amount of European capital for the relative safety of US bonds and treasuries. This, in turn jacked up the US dollar. Unfortunately for most of the Asians, their currencies were pegged to the US dollar, and so their debts, denominated in US dollars, were increased further in local dollar terms. Then currency raiders, sensing the weakness of their economic fundamentals and precariousness of their financial commitments, precipitated the so-called Asian Contagion (aka Asian Flu aka Asian Crisis) by shorting their currencies big time!
China believes the Asian Crisis was engineered by the US. China, IMHO, has a good point. In politics, it is a well-known fact that nobody gives something for nothing. (See below).
Comments, anyone?
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03:02 AM ET 01/06/98
China sees a plot in U.S. aid to battered Asia
BEIJING, Jan 6 (Reuters) - By imposing harsh terms on
financial aid to troubled Asian nations, the United States was
forcing into submission economic rivals in the region, the
People's Daily newspaper said on Tuesday.
China's Communist Party mouthpiece portrayed U.S.
intervention in the Asian currency crisis in cynical terms and
said it indicated a new relationship between Washington and
countries in the region.
Once Cold War-era allies, East Asian nations now posed an
economic threat to the world's only superpower, it said.
"The United States is certainly not offering a new Marshall Plan to East Asia," the article said. "By giving help it is forcing East Asia into submission, promoting the U.S. economic and political model and easing East Asia's threat the U.S. economy."
The U.S.-led Marshall Plan helped rebuild Europe's shattered economies after World War Two.
The newspaper said the United States was stressing the
authority of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the
crisis to further its own strategic interests.
''Troubled East Asian countries have no alternative to
swallowing the bitter medicine presented by the International Monetary Fund, and under harsh conditions contract internally and further open up externally,'' it said.
China often accuses the United States of trying to subvert
its communist system by insinuating ideas of free markets and
democracy.
The article said the United States "stood by and watched
with its hands in its pockets" when the crisis first erupted in
Thailand, believing it was a regional problem that signalled the
victory of the U.S. free-market system over an outdated East Asian economic model.
The regional turmoil started when Thailand stopped trying to defend its targeted exchange rate for the baht, which immediately collapsed.
At that point, the People's Daily said, Washington was not
prepared to bail out nations that were in long-running disputes
with the United States over trade and market access.
Only when the crisis began rocking international stock
markets did the United States step in by participating in an IMF
bailout for Indonesia.
"The crisis is both an opportunity and a challenge for the United States," the article said.
If the crisis was not resolved quickly, countries in the
region could be thrown into recession, reducing the flow of U.S.
exports. Cheap currencies in East Asia might also prompt a new wave of exports to the United States, exacerbating trade tensions, the article said.
"If East Asian nations dumped their enormous U.S. bonds
holdings, and pulled their investments out of the United States,
America could face financial panic and it could prompt a crisis
in the global financial system."
China chipped in $1 billion to the IMF bailout for Thailand and at one point said it was considering a contribution to help Indonesia get back on its feet.
The country has largely escaped contagion by the Asian
financial "flu", partly because its capital markets are sealed
to the outside world.
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