China: Families Burning American $100 Bills to Keep Warm

Peasant families in China have been keeping warm during a recent unseasonable summer cold snap by burning bales of U.S. $100 bills, according to a Chinese Electricity Board spokesman.

Shih Bao, the spokesman, told a hastily assembled Hong Kong news conference that families find it cheaper to use the American banknotes to heat their homes than pay increasingly expensive electricity bills.

"We are bringing in approximately $45 billion a month in foreigh exchange," Mr. Shih told reporters. "We are a big country, but there is simply no room for all this incoming cash."

Villagers told the Dissociated Press, "We are just trying to be frugal. The rapid growth of our country has pushed the cost of electricity sky high. The bales of U.S. currency are the least expensive way we have to keep our homes warm. And the ink and paper smell very nice when they burn."

China is "awash" in U.S. currency, Mr. Shih told reporters. "We feel bad that there are no other uses for it because the bills are too small to use around the house. We have tried to buy things with it, but Europeans and even the Japanese have no interest in it.

"Mao said, "Let a hundred flowers bloom.' But in today's China, it's 'Let a hundred dollars burn.' Our scientists are looking into ways to convert U.S. currency into fuel for our automobiles, but until then, at least it keeps our families warm at a very low cost for us. We think Benjamin Franklin, whose picture is on the bill, would be proud."