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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>…</b>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat<br><br><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…Under what circumstances would China cease lending to the US? Other than war, which would let the US simply invalidate all debt owed to China (and China knows this; this is the big thing keeping e.g. Taiwan safe for now). <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The Chinese government could foresee the inevitable and seize the outstanding credit of their citizenry, knowing that the sudden removal of Chinese investment revenue would prevent the US from fighting back as China invades Taiwan first, then Africa. The Chinese president can see the US budget is dependent on borrowing. Without borrowing, it cannot fund the military.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>If the US defaults on Chinese debt, the other countries and American investors realize it can default on their debt too. Lending grinds to an abrupt halt.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>China and the rest of the world have just witnessed an astonishing display of the weakness of US military will and might. China controls a big enough portion of the US debt to dictate terms.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>