Currency Wars 1, by Song Hongbing, is a bestselling book in China, reportedly selling over 200,000 copies and is reportedly being read by many senior level government and business leaders in China. Originally published in 2007 the book gained a resurgence in 2009 and is seen as a prominent exponent of a recently emerged genre labeled "economic nationalist" literature. Another bestselling book within this genre is Unhappy China, however, unlike this and other books within this genre, Currency Wars has been received more positively by the Chinese leadership as its recommendations are seen as less aggressive towards the US. The premise of this book is that Western countries are ultimately controlled by a group of private banks, which according to the book runs their central banks. This book cites the fact that the Federal Reserve is a private body to support its role.
According to the book, the western countries in general and the US in particular are controlled by this clique of international bankers, who uses currency manipulation(hence the title) to gain wealth by first loaning money in USD to these developing nations and then shorting their currency. The Japanese Lost decade, the Southeast Asian financial crisis, the Latin American financial crisis and others are attributed to this cause.
In addition, the book also goes back in history and argues that fiat currency itself is a conspiracy; it sees in the abolishing of representative currency and the instatemet of fiat currency a struggle between the "banking clique" and the governments of the western nations, ending in the victory of the former. It advises the Chinese government to keep a vigilant eye on China's currency and instate a representative currency.