The US is the main source of their wealth that they use to build their military. I'm typing on a Chinese made computer while my Apple phone goes off that was built in China. The chair I'm sitting on was built in China as well at the sneakers on my feet. They would be crippled financially without US money.
The USA isn't the main source of their wealth. That's an incorrect statement. When evaluated as an individual trade partner, yes, the USA is China's largest trade partner and even with that statement being said, there is a huge caveat to the overall disadvantage the USA has in comparison to China by way of international trade.
Last year, the total value of bilateral trade between the two countries was $737.1 billion, with U.S. imports from China valued at $557.9 billion and U.S. exports to China valued at $179.3 billion. The USA imported close to $600 Billion from China and China imported only $180 Billion from the USA. In other words, the USA sells very little to China in comparison to what China sells to the USA.
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https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/092815/chinas-top-trading-partners.asp#:~:text=At%20%2420.49%20trillion%2C%20the%20United,China%20valued%20at%20%24179.3%20billion.)
You might then say, "Well that shows that without the USA, China's wealth would be crippled". If so, even that statement would be incorrect.
Lets look at the actual figures (
https://www.worldstopexports.com/chinas-top-import-partners/):
Below is a list highlighting 15 of China’s top trading partners in terms of export sales. That is, these countries imported the most Chinese shipments by dollar value during 2020. Also shown is each import country’s percentage of total Chinese exports.
United States: US$452.6 billion (17.5% of China’s total exports)
Hong Kong: $272.7 billion (10.5%)
Japan: $142.6 billion (5.5%)
Vietnam: $113.8 billion (4.4%)
South Korea: $112.5 billion (4.3%)
Germany: $86.8 billion (3.4%)
Netherlands: $79 billion (3%)
United Kingdom: $72.6 billion (2.8%)
India: $66.7 billion (2.6%)
Taiwan: $60.1 billion (2.3%)
Singapore: $57.5 billion (2.2%)
Malaysia: $56.4 billion (2.2%)
Australia: $53.5 billion (2.1%)
Russia: $50.6 billion (2%)
Thailand: $50.5 billion (2%)
If you remove the USA from this list of the top 15 trade partners for China, you still have an additional 49.3% of trade from the other 14 countries, adding up to about $1.28 Trillion in export revenue coming in to China from the other 14 trading partners. Those other countries combined make up the main source of China's wealth. China is not dumb enough to just put all their cookies in one basket.
So, again, my question to you is: How exactly would losing a fraction of their export trade revenue cripple their economy? With the USA, China generates $1.67 Trillion in export revenue, WITHOUT THE USA, China would still generate $1.28 Trillion in export revenue. That's not crippling.
Additionally, the USA isn't the country with the top direct investments into China.
Foreign Direct Investment into China have the US ranked as the #8 country that invests into China's economy:
https://santandertrade.com/en/portal/establish-overseas/china/foreign-investment?url_de_la_page=%2Fen%2Fportal%2Festablish-overseas%2Fchina%2Fforeign-investment&&actualiser_id_banque=oui&id_banque=0&memoriser_choix=memoriserTo make matters worse, China holds the most amount of USA's debt. As of January 2021, China owns $1.095 trillion, or about 4%, of the $28 trillion U.S. national debt.
Look at the obvious evidence here, China has us by the balls.
P.S. Oldtimer1, this is in no way an attempt by me to 1-up you or anything. I am simply going by the heavy research I've been doing over the last 2 years surrounding the US-vs-China relationship. I'm literally sharing some of the same sentiment that some of the owners of the world's largest hedge funds (like Ray Dalio) share regarding the coming New World Order in the form of China. Most of the largest institutional firms in Wall Street are predicting that the new empire that will be taking over as the world's financial superpower is most likely going to be China. I know the sentiment is not very appreciated, but we have to look at this objectively.
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