The folks in the nation’s capital will likely shrug off reports that some in China think they should hold more gold and less U.S. debt as easily as they’ll shrug off stories about how different the view of the world is inside Washington D.C. and outside it.

China should cut U.S. Treasury holdings: economist

Yu Yongding, a former academic adviser to the central bank and now a professor with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing should invest in assets denominated in other currencies as well as other financial instruments and real goods.

“Although assets in other currencies and forms are not an ideal replacement for U.S. Treasury bonds, diversification should be a basic principle,” Yu wrote in the China Securities Journal.

“When demand for U.S. Treasury securities is strong, it’s a rare opportunity for us to gradually pull back. That way, it will not have a big impact on prices and China will not suffer too much,” he said.

Zhang Monan, a researcher with the State Information Center, a think tank under the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, told the paper that China should invest more of its $2.5 trillion of foreign exchange reserves, the world’s largest stockpile, in hard assets such as gold.

What at they waiting for?