Taipei is backing US entities to recover money from Beijing, since it took over the railways funded by the bonds

Asia Times
Date: September 9, 2019
By: KG CHAN

Does Beijing or Taipei owe the United States up to one trillion dollars? The Trump administration is reportedly mulling actions to get back the money loaned to the government of Imperial China more than 100 years ago.

Offsprings and representatives of the original holders in the US of the “antique China debt” – issued by the Qing dynasty government (1644-1911) to fund China’s railway construction less than a year before the last monarchy was toppled in the 1911 Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen – insist that it is incumbent upon Beijing to pay back the money long overdue under the principle of the succession of states, Bloomberg reported at the end of August.

The total size of the defaulted bonds to be repaid in line with their conditions, factoring in inflation and interest, is estimated to hit the one trillion dollar mark, roughly the equivalent to Beijing’s US treasuries holdings.

The money was raised 108 years ago to fund the construction of the Hukuang Railway, as part of north-south and east-west arteries linking the central province of Hunan to the southern trading hub of Canton, now Guangzhou.    [FULL  STORY]