Few people could look at the current state of US-China relations and not see America getting tough. In the past month, Google took a stand against Internet censorship, the U.S. increased arms sales to Taiwan, and President Obama forged ahead with plans to meet with the Dalai Lama--all of which drew angry reactions from Beijing.

Those news flashes must not have reached Glenn Beck. During a prolonged tirade on the rising national debt, the Fox News host offered his own appraisal of the China situation. "Mr. President, everyone has a boss," he solemnly intoned. "Our president's boss is now the bank of China." What followed was a scorched-earth harangue full of sound bites ("China now rules the world") and frightening questions ("Who owns us? Better yet, who owns our children?").

The issue of China owning American debt has been addressed by numerous journalists, including the Atlantic's James Fallows. But they have agreed that China cannot simply call in its loans to America without risking its own economic collapse. None of that resonated with Beck, who preferred to focus on whether China will "steal all our stuff."

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