Nov. 18, 2005 -- -- China may be half a world away from the United States and leagues apart when it comes to politics and pop culture, but the rising superpower is becoming increasingly entwined with the reigning superpower.

"We're joined at the hip with people who have a very different political system than we do," said New York Times columnist and best-selling author Tom Friedman. "It's a wonderful bargain, the Texas-Tiananmen bargain. It's so great and it seems to be just playing right along until it doesn't. And you never know when that's going to happen."

While American culture seeps into China in the form of television and chains like Starbucks, the two countries are reciprocally linked at their economic core, reports "GMA's" Bill Weir.

For example, after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, President Bush pledged tens of billions of relief dollars without raising taxes. With the federal government already in debt, where will the money come from?

Much of it will come from China, where a tradition of saving and lending has left the rising superpower with an $800 billion surplus that can be loaned back to the United States.

"They are funding a good part of our government right now, with money that we spend on their goods," said Jim McGregor, author of "One Billion Customers."

China has a lot of its savings because Americans continue to buy inexpensive Chinese products. Chinese products remain cheap because, for years, the Chinese government has manipulated its exchange rate.

"It's a little like that old joke. If you owe the bank $1,000, you're in trouble. If you owe the bank $1,000,000, the bank's in trouble," said Richard Hass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. "That's how the U.S. and China are. We have like a mutual hostage situation."