Even as China's state media on Tuesday slammed the country's massive U.S. debt purchases, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said China's leaders believe in "the basic resilience and dynamism of the U.S. economy."

Geithner said the economic and finance officials he met with during his two-day trip did not repeat concerns they have expressed publicly over the past few months about the deteriorating value of their holdings of U.S. Treasuries or the U.S. dollar position as the world's dominant reserve currency.

"What I sense is a fair amount of confidence, not just in the basic underlying strength and resilience of the U.S. economy, its dynamism, but in our capacity not just to solve this crisis, get growth back on track, but to go back to living within our means," Geithner told a small group of reporters.

Furthermore, he added, "I believe the Chinese expect the dollar to be the principle reserve currency for a long period of time as do we."

Geithner's remarks stand in sharp contrast to the commentary in China's official propaganda papers.

An editorial in the English-language China Daily said it will be "regrettable if [Geithner] underestimates and shuts his ears to voices from China's civil society," noting that there are worries that "Washington's mushrooming deficit, generated by massive government borrowing to fuel its economic recovery plan . . . will undermine both the dollar and U.S. bonds."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060200571_pf.html