June 28 - Martin Crutsinger reports today that, at least behind closed doors, China has been raising serious concerns about the state of the US economy and the ballooning national debt.

President Obama commissioned his chief economic officers including Peter Orszag, Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner, and Lawrence Summers last week to attend an economic summit with China, the world's third largest economy, and largest holder of US debt. At $801.5 billion, China holds 24.3% of all foreign owned treasury securities, and 11% of overall debt held by the public. Assistant Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said after the talks on Monday that, "We sincerely hope the U.S. fiscal deficit will be reduced, year after year." Although China is hopeful, its economic leaders have echoed their own sentiments and those of economists from earlier in the year questioning the role of stimulus spending on the US debt, and the rising budget deficit.