China concerned about investments in US: Wen

BEIJING: China is concerned about its investments in the United States, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday, as he called on US economic planners to safeguard the assets.

"We have lent huge amounts of money to the United States. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets," Wen told reporters.

"To be honest, I am a little bit worried and I would like to... call on the United States to honour its word and remain a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets."

As the largest creditor to the United States, China is "extremely interested in developments in the US economy," he said.

"On the foreign reserves issue, the first consideration is our national interest," he said. "But we also have to consider the stability of the overall international financial system, as the two factors are interlinked."

With the world's largest forex reserves, standing at $1.95 trillion at the end of December, China is facing the challenge of finding safe ways of placing its money, forcing it to buy large amounts of US government debt.

China held USD 727.4 billion in US Treasury bonds at the end of last year, ahead of Japan, the holder of USD 626 billion in bonds, according to US government data.