Cina's growing fear of a SWIFT sanction

  

According to the story, China was "a little bit surprised" when Russian banks were cut off from the SWIFT messaging system for international payments. Surprise may have tipped over into fear, however, with the freezing of roughly half of Russia's gold and forex reserves in addition to the SWIFT ban.
 
The story examines China's deep involvement in the international financial system, designed mainly by the U.S. Although China has its own Cross-border Interbank Payment System, or CIPS, average daily transactions as of March stood at 14,150 -- a far cry from SWIFT's 40 million daily transaction messages.
 
China does not rule out the use of military force against Taiwan should the island seek independence from the mainland. Under such a scenario, Beijing would not be able to escape strong financial sanctions of the very type Russia is experiencing.
 
The communist regime is still vulnerable to financial containment by the West. It may therefore think twice about trying to force unification with Taiwan until it has a much stronger renminbi and a more independent payment system.
 
It is widely believed that China's Hong Kong national security law, which essentially killed the "one country, two systems" arrangement and the territory's democracy, was inspired, or at least influenced, by Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.