I'm unfortunate enough to have to travel to China every so often on business. When I go out to eat with clients I am always horrified at the amount of food that gets wasted. More dishes are ordered than anyone can possibly eat (some are left almost untouched) and I would say that anywhere from 30-80% of the food remains uneaten. Whether the staff take the leftovers home, I'm unsure of but it seems an incredible waste to me.    The low price of food has allowed this thus far. A rise in price will put a big dent in the Chinese ability to go out and live it up. They also love their beer and alcohol, and if the price of drinks and food increase to make it where they can't enjoy eating out, it will definitely piss the average Chinese off and make any other slowdown in the economy seem unbearable.    Someone had mentioned that China could stand to lose a couple hundred million people (I certainly wouldn't miss them) and while this may be true, the communist party certainly doesn't want that many pissed off people milling about and fomenting dissenting ideas about the government. Be prepared for them to hit the release valve and blame their woes all on the US. In my opinion though, you shouldn't cry if you lie down with a known prostitute and come up with cooties.    Someone had also mentioned China owning this and that and possibly trying to collect should the SHTF. While they might be allowed some access to banking and real estate, I wouldn't worry too much about Chinese troops showing up in any Red Dawn type scenario anytime soon.    Besides, China reneged on their debt to the US racked up during and before the second world war as they claim it was made by an illegal government and not the one that came to power. Perhaps something big is being planned to try and cause the communist government to fall. Should that happen, then the US could always renege on their debt to China using China's own reneging of the debt they owed to the US and claim that the deal had been made with the communists rather than any new government that came to power.    Think it can't happen? The Chinese government is scared to death of popular uprisings and block sites like youtube and vimeo to keep the flow of information monitored. Doubt that this is done to protect the people as they say.