>> Would China use them to do a Black flag op?
Wouldn’t put anything past ‘em.
On the other hand — would you sneak into the house of a neighbor who owed you thirty thousand dollars and shoot him and frame someone else?
We owe china about a hundred million times that much, don’t we? I think we’re fairly safe for now. :-)
So with one hand China was shaking Nixon’s while the other was digging a tunnel in which to store its nuclear bombs.
Nixon was a fool.
a) Only until a chance remains that the debt will be repaid.
b) There are other ways to pay the debt. How much would it be worth to China to completely remove the USA from the world scene? Would the new leader of the world find ways to recoup the loss?
But we are relatively safe for now, with regard to (b). The EU and the USA are already doing everything in their power to defeat themselves. China only has to wait. EU may fall in 2012 on its own; if China throws any cash into the hat it will come with very serious strings attached. (The worst of all, this cash will be in form of US debt, which nominally has value but realistically is empty promises. This means that the USA will buy Europe for China.)
Well, what if your neighbor wasn’t paying you back and borrowing more money by saying he will use it to be productive. Then he blows that money on gambling and keeping his friends rich each time you lend.
Eventually you’ll say enough and seek other forms of payment. Things like property and forced labor.