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Here is an interesting piece on Sovereign Wealth Funds and foreign policy. While I disagree with the author that SWFs are basically benign in nature, he does cover some of the other ways that states use quasi-capitalist mechanisms to further their foreign policy goals.
I'm not sure what the impact of the current economic situation will be on this, but I think it's a net loss for the US.
Certainly China seems to be taking this notion of economic warfare seriously. Their recent proposal of an IMF-backed international currency fund simultaneously discredits the US dollar, while building up China's economic credibility. So I guess in that sense I do agree with the author that SWFs aren't the biggest threat.
On the other hand, the US mastered this technique of using international financial institutions to further their national interests sixty years ago.
I think the Chinese are hedging their bets, given that they have bet so massively and enormously on the U.S. dollar. Without PRC support, the dollar would likely have collapsed in value by now.
The Chinese know that they have to diversify out of the dollar eventually given the current imbalance.