China Doesn't Really Want to 'De-Americanize'

It's no secret that the entire world thinks the United States is crazy for its self-imposed political and economic crisis of shutdown and potentially default. China especially has a lot to lose if our economy craters, and is taking the opportunity to both criticize American democracy – a popular pastime in Beijing – and to urge us to please not default. China's message hit Washington especially hard on Monday morning, when an editorial in the state-run media outlet Xinhua called for a new international reserve currency to replace the U.S. dollar and declared that the international community should "start considering building a de-Americanized world." According to Business Insider, it's got lots of people in Washington talking, probably because it hits on the dual American anxieties that we are letting down the rest of the world and that China is finally making its move to replace us as the global leader.