October 19, 2021
RUTHERFORD COUNTY, North Carolina—Congressman Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) vowed when the Republican party retakes the majority, “I will seize every single Chinese asset in America as a downpayment for the reparations they owe us for what they’ve done to our country.”
Perhaps Cawthorn doesn’t see the financial destruction such a move would do to both countries. One of the biggest losers would be General Motors, a company toppled by Japan’s Toyota in 2007 as the world’s largest automobile manufacturer and is currently sitting in sixth place right after Honda Motors.
Half of General Motors’ revenue comes from China after losing the European market and is surpassed by Toyota in every country—including the United States for the first time since taking the title from Ford in 1931.
Cawthorn did not specify which assets he would “seize.” Chinese corporations have invested billions of dollars into various U.S. companies from Apple, General Electric, AMC Theaters, UFC to Tesla, and the real estate industry. China also owns more than $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities, right after Japan, which owns $1.2 trillion, according to Newsweek.
“There’s a new day rising in America. There’s a new patriotic fervor rising in America,” Cawthorn stated.
Cawthorn is a freshman in Congress and represents North Carolina’s 11th District. He was elected last November with 54.5 percent of the vote, reports Newsweek.
The freshman Congressman also annoyed China when he tweeted back on May 27, 2021, “For whoever needs to hear it: Taiwan is a country and an ally.”
Technically, Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China. During the Cairo Declaration in 1943, President Chiang Kai-shek, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill stated the following:
“All the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa [Taiwan], and the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China.”
However, during the Chinese civil war, the People’s Republic of China defeated the Republic of China in 1949 and caused them to retreat to Taiwan.
The People’s Republic of China became the legitimate government of China, which now means all lands promised to the Republic of China now belong to the People’s Republic of China. What’s the point of a civil war if the winner doesn’t take all? Should the Confederate States of America exist because losers can still be their own country?
If China’s claim over Taiwan is illegitimate, why isn’t anyone telling them to give up Manchuria as well? That was promised to the Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party clearly kept that.
Many may not like that assessment but it seems the rules on what the winning side of a civil war can keep differs from European to Asian countries and even American. By the logic used, Southerners in the United States of America should be allowed to break off, even though they lost the Civil War.
Feature Image via Cawthorn.House.Gov