China cannot use its $3.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves to rescue other countries, a top foreign ministry official said on Friday, in Beijing's strongest rebuttal yet to talk that it should help Europe overcome its debt crisis, according to Reuters. Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying said at a forum that the argument that China should rescue Europe does not stand and that Europeans may have misunderstood how China manages its reserves. She said China's reserves are akin to the country's savings and that the 1997 Asian financial crisis taught Beijing how important reserves are to the nation. As the owner of the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, China is one of the few governments with pockets deep enough to buy European government debt and help pull the region from its economic maliase.
