With the United States and Britain preoccupied with their own economic woes, allies that have traditionally relied on these nations for economic assistance are instead looking to China. In a climate of global economic uncertainty, China has presented itself to many struggling countries as an attractive alternative to Western financial reliance.

Jamaica, for example, which has been hit hard with unemployment, currency and credit problems, has sought help from Beijing. In March, loan packages worth $138 million were signed between the two countries, making China Jamaica’s biggest financial partner. “Headlines in Jamaica’s leading newspapers,” the Washington Post writes, “which only a year ago were filled with concern about China’s growing influence in the region, gushed about its generosity” (April 23).

China has also recently sealed financial deals—either loans or currency swaps—with Kazakhstan, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries.

Some experts are calling China’s new overtures a challenge to the existing order. The Washington Post writes,

Overseas aid and loans are just one way China is asserting itself in its new role as a world financial leader. While polishing China’s own image, Premier Wen Jiabao and other top leaders have blamed the West for the global economic crisis. Chinese officials increasingly are challenging the primacy of the dollar, warning other countries about the danger of keeping reserves in just one or two currencies, such as dollars and euros. And as the global economic crisis has eroded faith in U.S.-style capitalism, there’s growing talk that a new “Beijing Consensus” will replace the long-dominant Washington Consensus on how developing countries should manage their economies.

A report released by South Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance, titled the “Beijing Consensus,” sounds an alarm over China’s growing global economic influence. The report warns that countries accepting China’s aid may gravitate toward a Chinese-style economic model.

Countries accepting financial help from China are also more inclined to support Chinese initiatives, as the Washington Post outlines:

This week, China’s allies Kazakhstan and Pakistan—both of which recently got new loans from China—threw their support behind calls from China’s central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, to create a new world or Asian reserve currency to replace the dollar. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who also signed a credit line with China recently, has backed the proposal.In the past five months, China has signed $95 billion in currency swap agreements with six countries that now hold part of their reserves in yuan. The government has also begun to allow companies in southern China to settle contracts with foreign neighbors in yuan instead of dollars or euros.

Nouriel Roubini, a professor at New York University, said that in 5 to 10 years, “the Chinese currency could be the new reserve currency.”

While Bible prophecy reveals that it is Europe that will increasingly take the lead in global finance and trade, China has the ability to cause massive damage to the U.S. in the short term. Expect America’s influence on the world scene—both financially and otherwise—to continue to decline as countries like China gain leverage.