@ruck_feddit @yogthos doest the U.S. owe china almost a trillion as well?
The US pays it’s bills. China defaulting devalues it’s currency, making payment necessary in dollars. The US has a hard limit on how much yuan it will exchange for dollars to prevent a run on the currency. China cannot get enough dollars to pay the bill, while the US is the one country in the world to which China can’t just say “lol no.” Assets will be forfeit or one sided deals favoring the US will come out of this. The devaluation of the primary currency of a major trade partner means their goods cost less and their interest increases
US economy would collapse overnight without China, thinking that US has some sort of upper hand here is the height of comedy. US doesn’t produce much of anything today, its industrial base is around 11% of its GDP, and there is no substitute for China which is central to most supply chains.
China needs buyers. If the US stopped buying from China, it would be the same situation in China. Their economies are so intertwined that a war between them, even just financially, would ruin both
The US economy wouldn’t collapse without China, nor China without the US. They are so heavily intertwined economically that both countries avoid trouble with the other because the impact would be enormous.
China has manufacturing power. US has trade alliances and military power. Neither can overcome the other in simple terms.
If the US pulled out of China, the pressure on their allies to stop business with China would be the halting of sales of arms and support. Those F35’s require specific maintenance supplied by the US.
If China pulled out of the US, the pressure would be on US soil to bring prices of commodities down.
China is a cheap source of labor to the US, but so is India. Much of US tech support and manufacturing is moving to India anyhow because much of the educated population speaks English due to British colonialism. Over time, things would equalize and the new status quo would emerge. NEITHER country would cease to exist, and neither would acknowledge the growing pains.
