the military budget we have sustains that empire and that budget is taking money from what we should have. It would be a breath of fresh air if someone with a national voice would say just that: we are not getting what we need and what we want (health care, education, paid retirement, etc, etc., etc.) because we are paying for an empire! And we are not very good at being an empire!

China is posturing and making noise as they do every time pols in the US start whining about China's undervalued currency.

Here's the crux of the matter, from the Bloomberg article you cited:

“It’s extremely unlikely the dollar will be replaced as the reserve currency,” said Glenn Maguire, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong. “A currency needs to be internationalized and that requires a fully convertible capital account, which China doesn’t have.

Translation: China's currency policy is protectionist. The renmenbi (or yuan) doesn't trade on the international market. Hell, it's not even all that easy to move it in and out of Hong Kong, there are daily trading limits. And the Chinese Communists who run the show in Beijing aren't going to make the yuan fully convertible, because then they'd have to give up total control over the Chinese economy.

The most important thing to know about the Chinese government: these guys are control freaks.

So take this noise for what it really is: a China-U.S. poker game. Or even better, mah johng. The thrill of mah jong is not so much to win as to make your opponent lose.