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@REPLYADDR Leroy N. Soetoro
<democrat-criminals@mail.house.gov>
@REPLYTO 2:5075/128 Leroy N. Soetoro
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https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4075341-china-is-in-default-on-
a-trillion-dollars-in-debt-to-us-bondholders-will-the-us-force-repayment/
Every country should pay its sovereign debt. Default, we are told, is not
an option. But has anyone told China?
The United States pays interest on approximately $850 billion in debt held
by the People?s Republic of China. China, however, is currently in default
on its sovereign debt held by American bondholders.
Successive U.S. administrations have chosen to sidestep this fact,
allowing business and trade with China to proceed as normal. Now that the
relationship with China has soured and the People?s Republic of China has
become the greatest adversarial threat to the U.S. and Western security,
policymakers should revisit this appalling failure of justice.
ALSO IN OPINION: HOW ONE U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENCY IS HELPING CHINA WIN THE
TECH RACE
Some history is in order. Before 1949, the government of the Republic of
China (ROC) issued a large volume of long-term sovereign gold-denominated
bonds, secured by Chinese tax revenues, to private investors and
governments for the construction of infrastructure and financing of
governmental activities. Put simply, the China we know today would not
have been possible absent these bond offerings.
In 1938, during its conflict with Japan, the ROC defaulted on its
sovereign debt. After the military victory of the communists, the ROC
government fled to Taiwan. The People?s Republic of China was eventually
recognized internationally as the successor government of China. Under
well-established international law, the ?successor government? doctrine
holds that the current government of China, led by the Chinese Communist
Party, is responsible for repayment of the defaulted bonds.
A private group of American citizens holds a large quantity of these gold-
denominated bonds. This citizen-led group, the American Bondholders
Foundation (ABF), serves as trustee with power of attorney for some 20,000
bondholders, whose bonds are valued at well more than $1 trillion.
Then-U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher?s tough negotiation stance on
the return of Hong Kong to China led to a British settlement agreement on
these same Chinese bonds in 1987. Thatcher said that for China to have
access to U.K. capital markets, it had to honor the defaulted Chinese
sovereign debt held by British subjects. Faced with that stark choice,
China agreed.
Unfortunately, the U.S. failed to take such a common-sense stance. To this
day, China has had access to U.S. capital markets while openly rejecting
its sovereign debt obligations to American bondholders.
Lest anyone wonder about the age of these bonds, it is irrelevant. What
matters is that this is a sovereign obligation. As recently as 2010, the
German government made its last payment for reparations from World War I.
In 2015 Great Britain made payments on bonds issuances that dated from the
18th century.
The Biden administration and the U.S. Congress have a unique opportunity
to enforce the well-established international rule that governments must
honor their debts. Like the U.K. did in 1987, the U.S. must view the
repayment of China?s sovereign debt as essential to its national security
interests. In doing so, the U.S. government should undertake one or both
of two actions currently being discussed by members of Congress.
The first would be to acquire the Chinese bonds held by the ABF and
utilize them to offset (partially or in whole) the $850 billion-plus of
U.S. Treasurys owned by China (reducing up to $95 million in daily
interest paid to China). This would lower the national debt and put the
U.S. in a better financial position globally.
The second would be to pass legislation that requires China to abide by
international norms and rules of finance, trade and commerce. This would
include abiding by the transparency rules of capital markets and exchanges
and ending its practices of exclusionary settlement, discriminatory
payments, selective default, and rejection of the successor government
doctrine of settled international law. If China fails to meet those
obligations, it would be barred, together with its state-controlled
entities, from access to all U.S. dollar-denominated bond markets and
exchanges.
This, again, is just common sense and would be the very thing the Chinese
government would do if the situation were reversed.
Over the last two decades, there has been recurrent bipartisan support in
Congress for bondholders to address China?s default with several
congressional resolutions. Despite this, successive U.S. administrations
have been silent on this issue, choosing to kick this can down the road,
assuming that China would eventually liberalize and embrace Western norms
and values.
This failure to act needs to end now.
Given that relations with China have deteriorated and there is bipartisan
agreement on the threat from China, this matter can finally be acted upon
by both Congress and the Biden administration. Getting settlement on this
defaulted debt is not only right and just for the bondholders but, if done
correctly, could also be a huge win for the U.S. taxpayer.
Andrew Hale is the Jay Van Andel Senior Policy Analyst in Trade Policy at
The Heritage Foundation.
--
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won`t be offended.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama`s leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.
--- None
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