World should 'de-Americanise', says China following default fears
US default fears prompts China's state-run media call for the world to "de-Americanise" as Christine Lagarde warns of "massive disruption the world over". ● The looming prospect of a US default on debt prompted China to call for the world to “de-Americanise”, amid warnings of a new global recession. In China, Xinhua, the official government news agency, said that as American politicians continued to flounder over a deal to break the impasse, “it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanised world”. The jibe came as Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund chief, raised the spectre of a repeat of the 2008 financial crash as hopes dwindled for a resolution of the crisis over the debt ceiling and partial government shutdown. Harry Reid, the leader of the Democrat-controlled Senate and Mitch McConnell, who heads the Republican minority, met on Sunday for “preliminary” talks following the acrimonious collapse of negotiations between the White House and Republicans in the lower chamber. Jack Lew, the Treasury secretary, has said that the US will run out of money to pay its bills on Thursday if Congress does not authorise an increase in federal borrowing limits.