Secretary of State John Kerry met with top Chinese officials in Beijing on April 13 to discuss the growing threats from North Korea. However, when Mr. Kerry spoke with the press following the meeting, he said there were other discussions taking place. The U.S. and China discussed the possibility of China investing in U.S. infrastructure.

Yes, the potholes in the road you swerve to avoid on your way to work might soon be plugged with the aid of the Chinese. A lack of domestic funding has led the U.S. to look elsewhere for financing to pay for the most basic upkeep of the nation. “We welcome Chinese investment in the United States,” said a smiling Mr. Kerry, who suggested that China could play a big role building U.S. transportation infrastructure, water utilities and power plants.

This is not an entirely new initiative. In January 2011, President Barack Obama met with Chinese businessmen to discuss deeper U.S. investments. During the meeting, President Obama said, “The United States is open for investment and would welcome it.”

The U.S. certainly would benefit from Chinese help. With crippling debt closing in on $17 trillion, and $3.86 billion being added per day, there is less and less money being spent on aging U.S. infrastructure. In January 2009, the New York Times released an article stating, “More than a quarter of the nation’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Leaky pipes lose an estimated seven billion gallons of clean drinking water every day.” And that was four years ago.

The Times printed the article following the release of a report by the American Society of Civil Engineers which gave the nation’s infrastructure a D on a ranking of A through F. It estimated that it would cost $2.2 trillion over the next five years to bring it back into good repair. That hasn’t happened.

Enter China.

“The U.S.-China relationship is fast becoming the most important bilateral relationship for both countries, if it isn’t already,” said John Frisbie, director of the U.S. China Business Council.

But who is it really more important for? The U.S. cannot pay for its own infrastructure, the most basic of needs in America. So it is opening the doors wide for China to come in and spend money. In a sense, however, it is a win-win for both: China gets profits, and Americans get better infrastructure. And when foreign companies make the investments and are able to export the profits, wealth drains out of the nation.

The Trumpet wrote in 2011: “Washington’s move to yield strategic ground in these pivotal areas is designed to stave off the country’s demise, but it will only hasten America’s corrosion. Under the multiplying weight of debt, U.S. leaders are throwing open the nation’s doors for a Communist government to enter its borders and employ its citizens. America’s failure to control its spending is taking away its ability to control its course.”

This is evident with Washington’s dealings with North Korea. North Korea is utterly dwarfed by the power of the U.S., yet Korea continues to openly threaten America and its allies. It looks as if all the military might of America is virtually rendered impotent—and in a sense it is, because Washington is completely hamstrung by China. America recognizes that North Korea is a Chinese protectorate—and there is little it can do about it unless it wants to risk offending China. And this is not an attractive option when China is its most important lender and investor.

Following an address to the Edmond Chamber of Commerce on April 4, Congressman James Lankford was asked how dangerous America’s debt problem was. Lankford said that in his opinion, the more immediate threat was North Korea, but not because of its weapons. He said that if North Korea didn’t back down, and the U.S. was forced to mobilize troops, which costs money, China could refuse to buy up more U.S. debt. America would be without the funds to mobilize troops and check power in the Asia-Pacific region. Suddenly the U.S. could be facing an overnight interest rate hike on bonds.

America’s debt bomb could go off, he said. And it could happen “overnight.”

China holds over 7.5 percent of U.S. debt. America is so beholden to China, it has compromised its ability to act as a true superpower. Gone are the days that the U.S. could act with authority and real power—today the U.S. dances to the tune of its debtors.

As Trumpet columnist Robert Morley wrote last year, “[T]here is no doubt that China considers America’s debt as a weapon to be used. Back in 2007, Xia Bin, a cabinet-rank minister, stated that China’s foreign reserves should be employed as a ‘bargaining chip’ in trade talks with the U.S. That same year, as China and America hammered out a trade deal, He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further, warning that China could obliterate the greenback if it so desired. ‘China has accumulated a large sum of U.S. dollars. Such a big sum … contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency,” he said. … In the past, [Chinese media] has referred to America’s debt pile as China’s ‘nuclear option,’ indicating Beijing could easily trigger a dollar meltdown of massive proportions if it needed to.”

As China continues to invest in the U.S., there may be some benefits domestically. Perhaps roads will improve, or you will get better Internet services. But such benefits come at a terrible national cost. The U.S. is living Proverbs 22:7. It is truly becoming enslaved to those it reaches out to for help. The U.S. was prophesied to be ensnared by its enemies. If China gains control of American industry, on top of its huge intake of U.S. debt, America will well and truly be besieged by trade warfare, just as is prophesied in Deuteronomy 28.

The time is almost on us when economic restriction will choke off the United States. It is a bleak outlook, but not one that should despair us. With such immense trial, there is opportunity for repentance. God doesn’t want to see the nations suffer, but He must bring people to see that their ways do not work. The U.S. doesn’t have it right, and neither does China. Both will soon be taught the right way to live, along with all other peoples and nations.

You don’t have to be ignorant of the troubles besetting this world. Read Russia and China in Prophecy and The United States and Britain in Prophecy to understand the plan God has for the forming Asian conglomerate and the West.