US - China relations

[nickndfl]

China wants to pull away from the USA and reign over Asia. I am more concerned about the Chinese getting into South America than SE Asia. The Phillippines and Vietnam already know they do not want the Chinese telling them what to do wheras Venezuela and others are welcoming them.

 

[searcher]

Enhance Naval Deterrence, Near and Far​

The Navy should adopt a concise four-campaign construct to deter conflict with China inside the first island chain while strengthening support for U.S. allies and partners on the periphery of Asia and beyond.

The U.S. Navy faces many challenges as it sails deeper into the 21st century, but perhaps none more compelling than the need to communicate to the American people what it must accomplish, how it will do so, and with what assets. In short, it needs an organizational strategy.

Official defense guidance in Washington now has coalesced around China being the “pacing threat” facing the United States and its partners, thereby clarifying the focus of the strategic challenge.1 Yet it remains up to the Navy to design and communicate a simple and persuasive rationale on which to base its operational planning, force design, budget requests, and public communications.

Perhaps the best way to meet that goal is to adopt a concise four-campaign construct centered on deterring conflict inside the first island chain—especially over Taiwan—while strengthening support for U.S. allies and partners on the periphery of Asia and beyond. Adopting such a strategy would yield four lines of effort aimed at:

More:

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2024/april/enhance-naval-deterrence-near-and-far

 

[searcher]

China Maritime Report No. 37: Re-Engaging With the World: China's Military Diplomacy in 2023​

 

[pmbug]

It’s practically an international article of faith: Countries may not default on their sovereign debt. Yet China has done just that on $1 trillion it owes to U.S. bondholders. Is there nothing we can do about it?

Finding members of Congress willing to talk tough isn’t hard. Many resolutions and joint letters over decades have called for China to honor its debt to U.S. citizens. But too many members, their election coffers lined by Wall Street and other financial and business interests heavily exposed to China, leave it at that.

That makes the action of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) all the more noteworthy. He recently introduced a bill to address the People’s Republic of China’s selective default on American bondholders of Chinese sovereign debt.
...
Some historical context is needed here. Before the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, the Republic of China issued a large volume of long-term sovereign gold-denominated bonds, secured by Chinese tax revenues, for the construction of infrastructure and financing of governmental activities. China’s imperial government had done the same before the Republic of China was formed in 1912.

Following its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, the Republic of China’s government fled mainland China to Taiwan in 1949. The People’s Republic of China was eventually recognized internationally as its successor government. Under well-established international law, the “successor government” doctrine holds that, as the current government of China, the People’s Republic is responsible for repayment of the bonds issued by both predecessor governments, the Republic of China and previous imperial governments.

There is precedent for the PRC paying back this defaulted sovereign debt. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s tough stance led to a British settlement agreement on Chinese sovereign bonds owed to British bondholders, established in the Foreign Compensation Order of 1987.

As a result, the PRC Fund was established, and British bondholders of this debt were paid their due. Now our government should demand a settlement as well.

No other country has been permitted to continuously get away with defaulting on its sovereign debt while maintaining access to U.S. capital markets. ...

Lawmakers want to make China pay its trillion-dollar debt to Americans

When the People’s Republic of China won recognition as China’s rightful government, it also inherited its predecessor government’s debts

thehill.com

The bill is S. 3945:

To restrict the Chinese Government from accessing United States capital markets and exchanges if it fails to comply with international laws relating to finance, trade, and commerce.
...
(b) In general.—If the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, determines that the Government of the People's Republic of China is not in compliance with applicable laws relating to finance, trade, and commerce, as specified in subsection (c) and including the successor government doctrine with respect to sovereign debt, the Secretary shall prohibit any applicable United States entity, including capital markets, bond markets, and exchanges, from accepting any new investment, or effecting any transaction for others relating to a new investment, from such government or any commercial entities under the control of such government.
...

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/3945/text?s=1&r=7

If this passes...

 

[WinkWink]