china's short term liabilities and vegetables

Today I farewelled a dear friend from China who had come down to spend a week with me over my holiday period. Her work is in the security of forex and international banking platforms. About that she says little but I gathered she is not as confident as I am about China avoiding the worst of the global downturn.Apparently some short term liabilities are in the pipe line.
But all the meals we shared were home cooked by me ..and a helper or two!! The ingredients of those meals , except those that included meat or tofu, all came from my reasonably small but intensively cultivated garden. (and the wine of course but which was also local) So that leaves vegetables, herbs, fruit and eggs (well I didn't grow the eggs but they are happily deposited in a nest underneath the plum tree).
The resulting thoughts I have put on deeplode.com...but boy she sure has set me thinking about what the West can do...and also what it does with good but unintended consequences.