MONEY WORRIES ABOUT...CHINA? – AT 9:54 A.M. ET:   We tend in the U.S. to create imaginary supermen out of adversaries.  The Russians were ten feet tall.  Then the Japanese, with their Toyotas and Hondas.  And now the Chinese.

But the fact is that, while China is growing economically, it is also plagued with problems.  My friend Gordon Chang, a real China economic expert, has cautioned that China isn't the forward-forging monolith that we sometimes make of it.  And a new concern about China is moving global markets:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- World stock markets tumbled Tuesday, after a report stoked concerns about the finances of more than five dozen Chinese companies, and as fears remain high about Europe's debt crisis spilling over into Italy.

Asian stocks finished sharply lower, with China's Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) index falling 1.7% after Moody's Investors Services warned of risky business practices at 61 Chinese companies.

The "red flags" include weakness in corporate governance, poor quality of earnings, fast-growing business strategies and opaque business models.

LDK Solar (LDK), a Chinese solar company that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, fell 1.4% in premarket trading after it was listed among the 61 companies in the report.

And...

Meanwhile, talks among Europe's finance ministers spilled over into their second day Tuesday, as the group tries to find a way to contain Greece's debt crisis and prevent a debt contagion from spreading to other so-called periphery countries.

After a nine-hour meeting on Monday, the group published a six-paragraph statement pledging to enact new measures "shortly," but failed to calm investors' nerves -- who fear the debt crisis will spread to Italy next.

COMMENT:  The grass isn't always greener in the other guy's yard.  Europe is in trouble.  And Gordon Chang tells me that parts of China are proving ungovernable, and can even turn to revolution.

Of course, China buys our debt.  I don't know who'll buy it if they run into trouble, but, given how much Al Gore has earned in the global-warming business, maybe he can be prevailed upon.

July 12,  2011