It is quite possible that the money is unofficially sanctioned. You could even go so far as to speculate that abetting a bubble in OZ gives China leverage there. But I think China's pre-eminence as a coal and Iron buyer from OZ gives them that.

And of course it could motor on for longer than a year. Timing is always everyone's downfall, mine especially. If it wasn't we'd all be rich. The central government might never get a handle on it. I was certainly arguing that private greed and speculation is out of central control and is getting more so.

I'm just suggesting what the central government might want to do and what would result if they managed.

My reason for believing it's not sanctioned, but is private and illegal bank and regional government money, whose flow flow could get throttled back, is is simply because I think the Chinese need more than anything to create a domestic demand and internal economy.

The Chinese would be in a more powerful position if in addition to their massive dollar debt holdings, they ALSO had a robust domestic market supporting their industry. It would give them insulation from our tribulations.

If they manage it without their own bank and property bubble bursting- watch out!

Wanted to ask a question: is it possible that the money flooding into Oz is in fact unofficially sanctioned by the Chinese gov't ( perhaps it is mainly govt money) – aren't the Chinese looking for as many dollar-laundering avenues as they can get. And if so – isn't it possible that chinese govt owned dollars will continue to flood australian investment markets for much more than a year?