al44: You're right. The Chinese government is setting a very bad precedent by supporting breaches of contract. The Chinese firms involved have perhaps learned too well the American habit of shifting responsibility for their own reckless financial dealings to somebody else, alive or yet to be born. I wonder whether this event connects, in an etheric way, to Chinese fears that they are the ultimate dupes, having traded useful manufactured goods for a staggering US$1.7 trillion of U.S. Treasury debt instruments also known as "Ponzi paper".