Former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote that Americans seeking to preserve the country’s global primacy must, as in chess, think several moves ahead, anticipating possible countermoves.
His advice springs to mind as tensions between the US and China over data security, trade and intellectual property theft escalate. Both sides are openly flexing their economic and military power. But geopolitical shifts rarely depend only upon visible leverage and America may yet hold a trump card.
What would happen if President Donald Trump took his rhetoric about “making China pay” for Covid-19 to its logical conclusion? Leading Republicans like senator Lindsey Graham say the US should consider cancelling the $1tn-plus China holds in US Treasury obligations to seek reparation.