There is no need for China to build up the trade surplus (accumulation of dollar-denominated assets) in order to build its industries. As Mosler said, the shipment of Chinese goods to the US could all sink at sea and it does not affect one bit for the monetary situation in China, because as a monetary sovereign state, the Chinese government can always create the RMB (its own currency) needed to drive investment.

The reason China accumulates dollar-denominated assets is because it is following the IMF export-led growth strategy, that in order to keep their government deficit down, they have to first accumulate foreign assets to offset the deficit spending by the government. So, Chinese labor and resources are converted into real goods and services that Westerners enjoy, before they are allowed to invest domestically after earning the foreign revenues.

Keen does not understand that the US dollars (or dollar-denominated assets) do not “leave” the US currency zone when China earns it, so in his model, China is accumulating those assets while the US has to lose them. This failure in understanding the monetary logic is behind his entire argument.

Put another way, MMT asserts that the Chinese government does not have to balance its budget per the IMF. It simply has to run up the deficit (like the Americans do) to keep its industries working and workers employed, but this time, instead of an export-oriented model, Chinese labor and resources will be used to fulfill the demands of its domestic economy. Similarly, the US does not have to de-industrialize itself to preserve the reserve currency status of the dollar, because the US government can always run the fiscal policy to ensure full employment, social welfare and free healthcare to all its citizens without losing the dollar hegemony.