Biden will fly into Beijing late Wednesday for a five-day visit at the invitation of China's Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to become the country's top leader by 2013.

The trip risks being overshadowed by a storm of Chinese criticism of the United States, which earlier this month came close to defaulting on its debt.

China is the biggest foreign holder of US debt with Treasury holdings of around $1.2 trillion, and has repeatedly expressed concerns about the safety of its investments, particularly in the light of a recent unprecedented US downgrade.

"China, as the biggest foreign creditor of the United States and the largest foreign holder of dollar assets, is naturally more concerned about US policies than others," said the front-page column article in the People's Daily.

"We urge the US government to take its responsibilities on this seriously and put forward concrete measures," said the article, which ran only in the overseas edition of the newspaper, seen as the mouthpiece of China's Communist party.

"We expect the visit by the US vice president will help mutual communication and coordination and promote the vital interests of both sides," said the piece, written by Shen Dingli, director of a US research centre at Shanghai's Fudan University.

China's state-run media has run a series of scathing commentaries over the US debt crisis, accusing Washington of acting irresponsibly and demanding that the country live within its means.

Relations between the two countries have also been strained by other issues including Tibet and Taiwan, which split from China in 1949 but which Beijing still regards as a renegade province.

Shen's column warned Washington that arms sales to Taiwan were "harming the building of mutual trust".

It also accused the United States of "muscle-flexing" in the South China Sea, in an apparent reference to joint military drills with Vietnam that were conducted during a territorial spat between Hanoi and Beijing.

The US credit crisis has brought to light a fundamental difference between thrifty consumers in China -- the largest foreign holder of US debt -- and their credit-loving US counterparts.

After Standard & Poor's downgraded Washington's top notch credit rating this month, some Chinese have shown scorn for Americans they see as spending money before they earn it.

"They should just buy what they can pay for," said Zhao Kai, a Beijing resident, explaining that like many Chinese people he "prefers to pay cash and does not like being in debt".

According to Forbes magazine, the average Chinese household had debts worth just 17 percent of its annual income last year, against 136 percent in the United States.

"Compared to Americans who live on credit, when a Chinese person earns 100 yuan ($15.6), he or she will save between 25 and 30 yuan," said Wang Qing, a manager at investment bank China International Capital Corp.

Some economists attribute American consumers' growing dependence on credit partly to a sharp rise in living costs -- particularly fuel and food prices -- that has outstripped salary growth in the past decade.

China's enthusiasm for saving, meanwhile, is driven by inadequate health insurance and pensions and a one-child policy that forces parents to rely on themselves when they once would have counted on their offspring to look after them in old age.

Returns on investment in China are also high, which encourages people to save so that they can place their cash in real estate or other money-making schemes.

This is a source of frustration for the authorities, who would like to see domestic consumption playing a stronger role in the growth of China's export-dependent economy.

According to China's central bank, household savings reached 5.2 trillion dollars by the end of June, or around 4,000 dollars per person.

Credit cards are still making inroads in China, where only around 100 million people in the 1.3-billion-strong country use them.

Consultants McKinsey say just five percent of Chinese people had credit cards at the end of 2009, compared to the United States where 60 percent of the population had one or more.

But even those who own one use it sparingly.

"You mustn't abuse your credit card, otherwise you become a slave. If you don't have money, you just don't buy anything," said Li Yingsong, a businessman.

Chinese people prefer paying cash.

"Having money in hand reassures us, it gives a sense of security. People I know hardly ever use credit," said Cao Yang, a translator in Beijing.

Chinese consumers' aversion to credit is so big that some high-rollers have been known to pay for hugely expensive items in cash.

In the eastern city of Qingdao, for instance, one investor famously bought an 80-million-yuan building with wads of cash in 2009.

But as property prices spike, more people in China are now having to borrow money to buy a flat, plunging them into debt.

Many have taken out bank loans that they have to pay back over 20 years, sometimes putting more than half of their salaries into monthly repayments.

China's fun-loving youngsters -- more open to the Western way of life -- are also starting to consume more than their parents or grandparents, who experienced hardships under a strict Communist regime.

The "yue guang zu", which literally means 'the clan that spends all their monthly salary', are on the rise, particularly in urban areas.

As only children, some of today's youngsters have never wanted for money, and spend without thinking -- just like many of their Western counterparts.