AP
Nov. 17, 2010: President Obama walks with Chinese President Hu Jintao during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Many people assume China has the U.S. over a barrel. The country buys so much of our debt—around $800 billion—that we cannot “rock the boat” when it comes to U.S. and China relations. That has meant not pressing the PRC “too hard” when it comes to North Korea, or Iran.
Just recently, a top Obama administration delegation visited the People’s Republic of China. While there, the Chinese were told not to worry about the U.S. paying its debts to the country — their investments in the U.S. were safe. True enough.
But, I was struck with the fact that the PRC, however, does not pay its debts to the U.S. Now, that may strike most Americans as a “You must be kidding story”. But in fact it is true.
Many decades ago, China sold sovereign bonds worldwide to investors in many nations. They sold tens of thousands of these bonds on U.S. soil to American citizens on the recommendation of our government, indicating it was a lid investment.
Over the last sixty years, China has refused to pay to these bondholders either the principal or interest on these full faith and credit sovereign bonds. (To say nothing of the hundreds of billions also owed to U.S. artists from unpaid royalties on the more recent sale of pirated CD’s and videos, but that's another story).
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