US government "invested" in the US market at a far worse position 2008 crash. Everyone talks about a turn around but all it has been is a paper profit in the market prices, there is no real underlying strength. The FED emptied the gun completely with their one and only real bullet - Interest rates and they have not reloaded for the next crash.
The reality is that the 2008 crash was only halted, not stopped, healed or turned around. This book was written a few years ago and forecasts this very set of events happening leading into the real correction to come, have a read of :
Aftershock:
Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown.
To top it off, they have passed laws pretty much under the radar, that all personal bank accounts will be "taxed" in the next crash.
Meanwhile, China knows that they are reaching the point where they have to transfer their economy from a output model to consumer model. To do this will require the greatest move of people from rural and bring them into the rest of the system. They have allowed the building of infrastructure, housing and services to facilitate this that far surpass any current need or market drivers and the only thing left is the collapse of the financial system to devalue these assets and make it affordable for the lowest socioeconomic group for this move to happen. The investors/developers who loss out on this devaluation mean nothing.
We in the west just cant comprehend the mentality of actions like this that leads to what we would consider disaster but for China as a whole will mean a massive leap forward on the next upswing. Have to remember, it wasn't long ago that millions died of hunger as the country made its last transition. They think fundamentally different from the west and run on a 100yr plan. We're lucky to get a 2yr plan.
They are doing nothing more then they have watched the west do. They just do it squashed into a smaller time scale.