Geitner and China

As part of a lengthy profile of U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner -- the director of the U.S.'s economic response to the financial crisis -- the New York Times was able to obtain two years of Geithner's daily schedules when he was the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Yay, Freedom of Information Act!

The best part is that you can search all 658 pages of the released text. Just for kicks, I searched for "China" and 14 results appeared. Check them out here.

Among Geithner's scheduled China-related events include a February 11, 2007 working dinner for Fed Governors hosted by Zhou Xiaochuan, then Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements' Asian Consultative Council and the Governor of the People's Bank of China. The guest speaker discussed "Capital Flows in Asia: challenges for Central Banks." On April 2, 2007, Geithner also met with several key executives of the China Merchant's Bank.

Nearly a year later, on July 11, 2008, Geithner met in his office with Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Zhou Wenzhong. That was the same day that IndyMac Bank, the savings and loan that specialized in risky mortgages, announced its closure. A few weeks after that, on July 29, 2008, he met with New York Fed executives Terrence Checki and Lawrence Sweet, from the emerging markets and international affairs group to discuss the People's Bank of China's proposed dollar clearing system.

On October 8, 2008, Geithner met again with representatives with China Merchants Bank -- the same day that the Fed authorized lending AIG $38 billion. A month later, on November 19, 2008 Geithner attended a cocktail reception for the opening at The Plaza (Hotel?) of the New York branch of China Merchants Bank, on the invite of bank's chairman, Xiao Qin, and president and CEO, Weihua Ma.

The last China-related entry on his schedule was for December 3, 2008, where Geithner met in his office with Dr. Gao Xi-Qing, president of the China Investment Corp., Ltd.

While one can only guess at the what has been spoken between Chinese government and bank officials and Geithner over the past two years, surely a number of these conversations must have included Chinese concern over the safety of its $1 trillion in American bonds.

In March, Chinese Premier Wen Jinbao said at the conclusion of China's National People's Congress: "We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets... To be honest, I am definitely a little worried."