09.28.08, 1:51 PM ET
United States - (Adds quotes, details, background)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Beijing was worried about the impact on its investments of U.S. financial market turmoil but now was the time to cooperate to calm markets.
"U.S. finance is closely connected with the Chinese finance," Wen said in an interview aired on Sunday on CNN.
"If anything goes wrong in the U.S. financial sector then we are anxious about the safety and security of Chinese capital," he said, but now was time to "join hands" to deal with the crisis.
"Now, cooperation is everything," Wen said in an interview that was taped last week.
He said Beijing still considered the U.S. economy to be "solidly based, particularly in the high tech industries and basic industries" but wanted to see it become more stable.
"The Chinese government hopes very much that the U.S. side will be able to stabilize its ... economy and finances as quickly as possible," Wen said. "Of course we are concerned about the safety and security of Chinese money here."
The United States is reliant on borrowing from China and other countries to finance its day-to-day operations. China at the end of June held $1.8088 trillion in foreign exchange reserves.
"We believe the United States is a credible country," Wen said. "Particularly at such difficult times China has reached out to the United States and we believe that such a helping hand will help stabilize the entire global economy and finances and prevent major chaos from occurring." (Reporting by Glenn Somerville; Editing by Neil Stempleman)
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