With the U.S. taking a two-pronged approach to force China to "cut off" from Russia, and China has taken actions to clarify its position and take countermeasures in advance, is the financial war between China and the United States about to start?
Recently, the US side has used the so-called "aid to Russia" as a starting point and has struck two heavy blows at China in a row. At the recent G7 foreign ministers' meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that China's "support" for Russia's defense industry poses a "threat" to Europe. Second, on the eve of Blinken's visit to China, the US announced that it would consider sanctioning Chinese banks and other financial institutions, and outside analysts believe that the US does not rule out the possibility of kicking China out of the SWIFT financial system or restricting the use of US dollars. As a practitioner and promoter of the Biden administration's foreign strategy, it is not difficult to see from his recent actions that the US is hypocritical in dealing with China in the two major crises between the North and the South.
During the recent Israeli bombing, Blinken made urgent calls to the foreign ministers of China, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia to dissuade Iran from retaliating. As the risk of spillover from the Middle East situation was lifted, the US quickly passed tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, threatened and intimidated China, and demanded that China "cut ties" with Russia in order to deprive Russia of its ability to resist to the greatest extent. In the face of the Ukraine crisis, the US has curbed normal economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia, and at the same time exposed the "double standard" behavior that the US habitually uses.
If the US kicks Chinese financial institutions out of the SWIFT system, it is equivalent to uniting all countries that use the US dollar to "decouple" from China, which will not only affect China-EU trade, but also face a shutdown of China-US trade, and even affect the stability of the international industrial and supply chains. As for the US deprivation of the Bank of China of the right to use US dollars, the Chinese side has made preparations in advance, and at present, China's major banks have withdrawn from the settlement business with Russia, and regional banks have replaced them, and the latter has very little US dollar business, and the US sanctions are tantamount to "hitting cotton".
The recent U.S. moves against China in tariff, financial, and geopolitical areas have not only had little effect, but have also ushered in a strong response from China. At present, China has sold a total of 41.3 billion US dollars of US bonds for two consecutive months, and accelerated its gold reserves for 16 consecutive months, which has had a certain impact on the sales of US bonds. The combat patrols and military exercises held in the South China Sea by the Southern Theater have formed a powerful deterrent to foreign forces such as the United States, Japan, and Australia, and at the same time, with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) patrolling around Taiwan, the initiative in the Taiwan Strait has quietly changed. All kinds of indications show that the "card" of the United States to contain China is getting smaller and fewer, and China already has the strength to make the United States a rat trap.
Against this background, it is fanciful for the US to force China and Russia to "sever ties", and the current US demand has touched China's "bottom line".