A distant past
Chinese assets in the United States have also been frozen by the United States
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the United States, together with the European Union and Japan, froze Russia's assets in these countries, totaling more than $300 billionThe move demonstrates United States' ability to use its financial influence to impose economic sanctions on other countries, and it is one of the powerful means by which United States maintains its hegemony in the world.
United States joined hands with Western countries to freeze Russia overseas assets
In fact, Russia is not the first to freeze the assets of other countries. After World War II, United States froze the assets of many countries. As:
Cuba: Since the Cuban Revolution in the 60s of the 20th century, the United States has imposed various sanctions on Cuba, including a comprehensive embargoIn 1963, the United States completely froze Cuban assets in the United States and openly disposed of frozen Cuban assets through the Cuban Assets Control Regulations
North Korea: In 2009, the United States froze the assets of the North Korean Atomic Energy Agency and the North Korean Danjun Trading Company, which are believed to support North Korea's missile and nuclear programs.
Afghanistan: In August 2021, the Afghanistan central bank's $7 billion reserve was frozen United States Afghanistan U.S. troops withdrew as the Afghanistan Taliban entered the capital KabulThis funding is vital to national reconstruction and improving people's livelihoods in Afghanistan, but the United States refuses to thaw and return it
Venezuela: In 2019, the United States froze $342 million of Venezuela's central bank in the United States in order to sanction the Venezuela government and handed control of those funds to Venezuela's oppositionThe Venezuela government has repeatedly intervened with the United States, but has never received a response
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In case you don't know, at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, United States also froze Chinese assets in the United States.
On 25 October 1950, the 118th Division of the 40th Army of the Chinese People's Volunteers, which went to fight in Korea, completely annihilated a reinforced battalion of the 6th Regiment of the 2nd Division of the South Korean Army at Wenjing and Liangshuidong near the Sino-Korean border, firing the first shot of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
Deng Yue, commander of the 118th Division of the Volunteer Army, commanded the battle of Liangshuidong (October 25, 1950)
On December 16, 1950, the United States Department of State issued a freezing order and promulgated the Regulations on the Freezing of Assets of China and North Korea, freezing the tangible and intangible movable, immovable and contingent assets and interests of China and its nationals in the United States, with total assets of $805 million.
In response to the freezing order issued by the United States government, the Chinese government reacted immediately. On December 28, 1950, the Government Council issued the Order on the Control of United States Assets in China and the Freezing of United States Deposits in China. In view of the fact that the United States Government has declared control over the mainland's public and private property in the United States and intensified its hostile and sabotage activities against the mainland, it has decided to control all assets of the United States Government and United States enterprises in China and freeze all United States public and private deposits in China. The full text of the order is as follows:
People's Daily, October 29, 1050
Administrative Council of the Central People's Government
Order on the Control of United States Assets in China and the Freezing of United States Deposits in China
On 16 December 1950, the United States Government announced that it would control the public and private property of our People's Republic of China in the United States area and prohibit all US-registered ships from sailing to Chinese ports, in an attempt to further plunder the property of the Chinese people economically after its armed invasion of our Taiwan, the bombing of China's northeast, and the shelling of our merchant ships.
The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, in view of the intensifying aggression and hostility of the United States Government against the mainland, and in order to prevent it from engaging in economic sabotage and endangering the interests of the people of mainland countries within the mainland, hereby adopts the following measures:
1. All property of the United States Government and United States enterprises within the territory of the People's Republic of China shall be immediately controlled by the local people's government and shall be inventoried and shall not be transferred or disposed of without the approval of the people's government of the large administrative region (military and political commission) (the provinces and municipalities directly under the central government shall report to the financial and economic committee of the government council for approval). The owner or manager of each such property shall be responsible for the protection of such property from destruction.
2. All United States public and private deposits in all banks within the territory of the People's Republic of China shall be frozen immediately. Expenses necessary for the maintenance of legitimate business and personal life must also be approved by the local people's government before they can be used. The amount of its utilization. It shall be separately stipulated by the Financial and Economic Committee of the Government Council.
The above order shall come into force immediately on the date of promulgation.
Premier Zhou Enlai
December 28, 1950
As a matter of fact, when New China was founded, the issue of eliminating imperialist economic privileges in China was on the agenda of the state in order to implement Chairman Mao Zedong's diplomatic strategy of "cleaning up the house." At the beginning of the establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Policy Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the foreign affairs departments of various provinces and cities, began to investigate the assets of various imperialist countries in China.
The East Gate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China - No. 31, Foreign Ministry Street, Dongcheng, Beijing
At the time of liberation, there were more than 1,700 foreign enterprises in China, including 299 in United Kingdom and 212 in United States, mainly concentrated in Shanghai, with 12 banks alone. Considering that some foreign enterprises in China are involved in the national economy and people's livelihood, if they are shut down immediately, it will certainly have a huge impact on economic construction and the lives of ordinary people, such as the Shanghai Electric Power Company, the Shanghai Telephone Company, and the Shanghai Electric Company run by United States. There are also some foreign enterprises, which our human and technical forces cannot fully take over and operate, and if they are taken over or shut down, it will inevitably cause a large number of workers to lose their jobs, such as shipyards, shipping fleets, tobacco companies, etc. Although the investigation is still ongoing, these foreign enterprises have not been touched. In other words, as long as the business is in compliance with the law, the business can still operate.
However, the United States government's freezing order forced the Chinese government to "start" United States assets in China in advance. On December 31, 1950, at a banquet to see off the Soviet ambassador to China, Eugene, Mao Zedong mentioned to him the Chinese government's freezing of United States assets in China: "Because the US imperialists froze the mainland's funds, we decided overnight to accept 16 universities, 250 middle schools, and more than 1,600 primary schools that received United States allowances, thus protecting the educational cause of our motherland. It seems that the confiscation of United States assets in China is not only banks, factories, commercial enterprises and other enterprises, but also a large number of schools. The names of famous schools such as Yen Ching Restaurant, St. John's, Furen, Xiangya Medical College, Lingnan University, and Jinling University disappeared during that period.
Yen Ching Restaurant (now Peking University) photographed in March 1941
The Chinese government's approach is to freeze it first and then clean it up. Here's how:
First, it is necessary to impose military control over United States' electric power, public utilities, real estate, and other enterprises, and hand over the equity and creditor's rights of United States in these enterprises to the People's Bank of China to set up special accounts to freeze them. The assets of the Shanghai Electric Power Company amounted to more than $57 million, and the Shanghai Telephone Company paid 10 million taels of silver when the United States bought it from the United Kingdom in 1930.
Shanghai Telephone Company (now No. 232, Jiangxi Middle Road, Shanghai)
Second, the wharves, warehouses, ships, oil companies, and so on owned by United States should be immediately expropriated, leaving aside the issue of property rights, and the management rights of enterprises should first be transferred to the people's government. The People's Bank of China shall price some materials, real estate, and other property that can be valued in kind, and the funds collected shall be frozen by the People's Bank of China. At that time, many United States enterprises had long since closed down, and the people's government ordered them to liquidate and sell all their property within a time limit, and the proceeds were also frozen by the People's Bank of China. In addition, all the land, farmland, racetracks, and the like that imperialism used to occupy by privilege must be recovered.
Shanghai Racecourse (now People's Square)
Third, after successfully implementing control over the three major electric power, telephone, and electrical companies, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government has imposed control on 115 United States companies, including United States Commercial Bank, Texaco Oil Company, and Mobil Oil Company. At the same time, Beijing, Qingdao, Chongqing, and other places have also carried out inventory and freezing of United States enterprises and assets in accordance with the central policy.
Mobil Oil Company Shanghai Oil Terminal
Although United Kingdom has the largest assets in China, the United Kingdom government announced on January 6, 1950 that it recognized People's Republic of China and did not freeze Chinese assets in the United Kingdom, as United States did, so the Chinese government took a more moderate attitude in dealing with United Kingdom assets in China, unlike United States.
United Kingdom Representative Office in China - 14 East Chang'an Street, Beijing
This operation lasted until the end of 1952, when a total of 304 American-funded enterprises were taken over and controlled throughout the country, and hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen deposits alone were received. The Chinese government has not made public the data on United States assets in China. According to the data released after the revelation so far, at that time, China confiscated the assets of the United States government and companies in China totaling $56 million. In addition, the fixed assets invested by United States in China, such as ports, terminals, including other infrastructure and various equipment, are valued at about $100 million. At that time, the so-called "Foreign Compensation and Liquidation Committee" of the United States calculated that the Chinese government had confiscated about 300 million U.S. dollars in United States assets in China, more than the Chinese statistics.
At that time, China and the United States were enemies of each other, and the struggle between the two sides could be described as "life and death". In the eyes of the Chinese government, there is little hope of recovering the assets in the United States from the United States, and it seems that this account between China and the United States can only be settled by "freezing" each other......
Unexpectedly, the United States have always been obsessed with this account and have never forgotten it. On January 30, 1979, 29 years after the Sino-US "asset freeze" incident, one month after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States in 1979, the United States government appointed Secretary of the Treasury Michael · Blumentel to come to the door and reopen the old account. On the occasion of Deng Xiaoping's visit to the United States with a Chinese delegation, Foreign Minister Huang Hua and Vice Minister Zhang Wenjin, who accompanied him, held a meeting with the "old settler" finance minister. The talks took place in Blumenthal's office.
Blumentel, Huang Hua, Zhang Wenjin
Blumentel expressed the following views to the Chinese side:
1. Agree to unfreeze all of China's $805 million in U.S. assets that will be frozen by United States.
2. Because more than half of the assets have been deposited in banks in third countries or have been recovered by China and cannot be recovered, only $401.7 million can be returned to China.
3. According to US statistics, the total assets of United States in China "frozen" by the Chinese government are $1.969 billion. It consists of the following three sections:
1) United States Department of Postal Service assets
2) United States embassy and consular assets in China
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The former site of the United States Consulate in China in Beiping
3) Loan from the Export-Import Bank of United States to the Kuomintang government (about $2.6 million)
4. China can deduct more than $400 million from the 1.969 billion United States assets that have been frozen, and then return the remaining money to the United States. The asset should be paid off gradually over a period of 5 years with an interest rate of 5%.
On behalf of the Chinese side, Huang Hua gave the following reply to the three assets requested by the United States Government for repayment:
1. The first part of the assets mentioned was produced after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and China promised to return them.
2. The second part of the assets mentioned can be repaid according to the amount confirmed by both parties.
3. The third part mentioned, that is, the loan from the United States to the Kuomintang government, was refused to be returned by the Chinese side.
Blumentel explained to the Chinese side that the loan was for the Kuomintang government to purchase railway locomotives, and that it was used by the new Chinese government, so the loan should be repaid. Huang Hua made clear the Chinese government's position that repaying United States' loans to the Kuomintang government violated the diplomatic principles of the new China, and that the Chinese government would not pay for the old Chinese government's dealings with the United States.
Seeing that Blumentel was dissatisfied with the diplomatic rhetoric that "the Chinese government would not pay for the dealings between the old Chinese government and United States," Huang Hua asked Brumentel again: "If we die of certain things in the past, the Chinese government will also think that the United States companies in China before the liberation still owe China a large amount of taxes, and should make up the part of the wages that did not meet the wage standards for the Chinese workers." Should we also talk about these kinds of issues? Speechless in the face of this question, Blumentel had to play a negotiating trick: "I think the best way to effectively solve the current problem is for both of us to give up some of the demands." ”
Huang Hua also expressed dissatisfaction with the following two statements made by the US side:
First, it is incomprehensible that the United States unilaterally changed the amount of restitution from $805 million to $401.7 million. "The United States government did not know the details of the asset at the time," Blumentel explained. We thought we would be able to control and dispose of the entire amount, but after careful calculation, we found that we could only control half of it. Such a pale explanation is obviously not satisfactory to the Chinese side.
Second, he expressed his opposition to the US side's demand that China pay interest on repayment. In fact, as early as 1972, the then Premier Zhou Enlai and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger talked about this matter, and this matter was included in the package reached by the two sides. Huang Hua reminded Blumentel: "According to the package previously agreed between China and the United States, the United States did not propose that the Chinese government should repay interest along with the return of United States assets. Because the "package" is "written in black and white", Huang Hua's conclusion is reasonable and well-founded, and Blumentel is speechless.
Kissinger and Zhou Enlai
This was the end of the meeting between the two sides. Although no information or results have been found about the follow-up talks between China and the United States, it is known from the information released by the authorities later:
1. United States pledged to return $401.7 million of frozen Chinese assets in the United States has been fulfilled.
2. The U.S. side did not pay the $2.6 million loan to the Kuomintang government.
3. China returned United States' frozen private assets and government assets in China without interest.
On September 9, 1979, the State Council of the People's Republic of China issued an order authorizing Bank of China to handle the recovery or withdrawal of assets frozen by the United States Government on behalf of the holders. On the same day, Bank of China issued an announcement announcing that in accordance with the agreement signed by the Chinese and American governments on May 11 to settle asset claims, the United States government will announce on October 1 that all of our frozen assets will be unfrozen, and these assets will be recovered by us.
Bank of China Site (No. 23, Xijiaomin Lane, Beijing)
Looking at China and the United States today, it is also possible to say different things. The number of United States companies in China has reached 73,000, with a total investment of more than $1.2 trillion. Although there are not many Chinese companies in the United States, the total assets in the United States are more than $2 trillion. At a time when the confrontation between China and the United States is intensifying, fears of a repeat of the "freeze" scene 74 years ago are not unfounded, although most experts believe that this will not happen......
*The picture is from the Internet, if there is an infringement dispute, it will be deleted