![\"Oil,](\"https:\/\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2018\/08\/24\/23\/33\/oil-3629119__340.jpg\")
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This story kind of writes itself. If there is anyone who can twist Xi JinPing’s arm, it should be our current, sitting (and frequently standing) President, but one would suppose that this might have been addressed by earlier administrations.<\/p>\n
Essentially, China owes us money. Lots of money. In fact,\u00a0China owes US citizens $1.6 trillion in a century-old bond debt.\u00a0 This did come as a surprise to me, because it’s never been bandied about as a way to make China knuckle under. And as much as Xi JinPing loves money (yes, he does, it’s as obvious as ketchup on French fries) and the glam of being a control freak, one would think he’d have addressed this by now.<\/p>\n
Pony up, Xi! Cough it up now!\u00a0 https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/markets\/historic-chinese-bonds-trump-leverage-beijing<\/a><\/p>\n From the article:\u00a0 As the\u00a0Trump<\/a>\u00a0administration seeks ways to penalize\u00a0China<\/a>\u00a0for its handling of the\u00a0COVID-19<\/a>\u00a0pandemic, it need look no further\u00a0than Tennessee.<\/p>\n The Lewisburg, Tennessee-based American Bondholder Foundation holds $1.6 trillion of century-old Chinese debt, including interest, dating to before the founding of the communist People\u2019s Republic of China, that it wants the administration’s help in redeeming. There is an estimated $6 trillion or more of the debt outstanding worldwide.<\/p>\n The bonds were issued by the Republic of China — which ousted the imperial government in a coup — as far back as 1912 and are backed by gold; they were defaulted on in 1938. The ROC government fled to Taiwan, where it remains the official ruling body<\/u>, after Mao Zedong\u2019s communist party took over following the 1949 end\u00a0of the revolution.<\/p>\n Beijing maintains Taiwan** is part of China, and under international law, successor governments are responsible for the debts of their predecessors.<\/p>\n By paying some bondholders and not others, Beijing is technically in selective default, according to the ratings of bond-risk firms Moody\u2019s, Standard & Poors and Fitch. Until China pays, it cannot sell debt on the international market<\/strong>, Bianco said.\u00a0 \u2013 article<\/p>\n **Plainly, this technicality that Beijing claims it owns Taiwan is like walking around in the dark and bumping into hardwood furniture, in a thunderstorm with nasty flashes of lightning. The stumbling block is that Taiwan refutes Beijing’s claim as an independent entity.<\/p>\n Note that, when Margaret Thatcher demanded that the Chinese government make good on bonds owned by British citizens or lose access to British capital markets, President Li Xiannian\u2019s government obliged, reaching a settlement of 23.5 million British pounds.<\/p>\n Do we have something similar going on here? Why, yes – yes, we do: In addition to those $1.6 trillions in gold-backed bonds, China is proposing to purchase drilling rights in oil fields in the Permian basin, which were essentially shut down because of the drop in oil prices and the glut and lack of storage space for crude oil. The price of oil per barrel has risen. If you haven’t noticed a rise in the price of gas at the pump recently, it’s gone from $1.849 in February to about $2.259 to $2.459, depending on where you are. And in reality, you’d have to wonder why China isn’t doing a deal with Vlad Putin. But let’s not put a bug in anyone’s ear about it.\u00a0 China does have its own reserves, as well: it holds 25,132,122,000 barrels of proven<\/strong> oil reserves<\/b> as of 2016, which begs the question: why does China need to drill here? Or for that matter, own anything here?\u00a0 Once the camel gets its nose under the tent flap….<\/p>\n Things will be picking up if the CV19 crisis is in actuality coming to its conclusion, but as with Mrs. Thatcher, one can rightfully hope that the USA will have China by the short hairs if the right person can do what Maggie did.<\/p>\n Do we have anyone like Mrs. Thatcher who could get this deal done?\u00a0 Anyone have an answer to that? Anyone?\u00a0 Bueller?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"