Foreigners held $9.271 trillion worth of U.S. federal debt in 4Q2025

 The corresponding figure for China at the end of 2025 was . . . $0.85 trillion.

🤣 

Total external debt of China was $2.328 trillion.

Total external debt of the United States was $29.448 trillion.

America is where it's at, Jack. 

 

 

Traitor Trump gives aid to the Axis of Evil by unlocking Iranian crude oil, 90% of which is normally purchased by the Chicoms

 U.S. issues sweeping Iran oil sanctions waivers, unlocking billions in revenue for Tehran

The U.S. has issued a sweeping rollback of sanctions on Iranian oil, allowing dollar-denominated trade for the first time in more than four decades ...

The U.S. Treasury on Monday issued a wide-ranging 60-day exemption allowing Iran to produce and sell crude oil, petrochemical and petroleum products in U.S. dollars through Aug. 21. ...

The move on Monday marks the most sweeping rollback of American oil sanctions against Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, reversing years of pressure designed to cripple Iran’s economy, and is expected to deliver billions in oil revenue for the Iranian regime. ...

U.S. President Donald Trump defended the lifting of the sanctions, saying on Monday that any oil profits were meant for Iran to purchase American agricultural goods, rather than rebuild its military. ...

“With dollar clearing now authorized, expect China to accelerate purchases aggressively,” said Maleki. Chinese buyers, in the past, have settled transactions through opaque channels to avoid secondary U.S. sanctions exposure. ...

He expects a rapid storage “top-off cycle” under which Chinese buyers could rush to replenish stockpiles before the exemption expires in August.

China currently purchases roughly 90% of Iran’s oil exports, with teapots accounting for the bulk of China’s imports. The country’s crude imports shrank by an unprecedented 4.8 million barrels per day (mbd) between February and May — a steeper drop than the 4 mbd decline seen during the depths of the pandemic in the second half of 2020, according to JPMorgan. ...

Iran will likely use this 60-day window to repair war-damaged oil facilities and lock in longer-term contracts with Chinese buyers, said Michael Feller, chief strategist at Geopolitical Strategy. “This will be a huge boost to Iran, both to its economy and its sense of victory.”  

 

With Trump a failure in the Red Sea in 2025 and now in the Persian Gulf in 2026, it's easy to imagine China pulling the trigger in Taiwan

China's Navy Tightening the Noose on Taiwan...

The total value of all foreign-owned U.S. Treasury securities is up 3.25% year over year in March 2026, and CNBC says Japan and China retreat from owning them

The big retreat was actually in the BRICS. 

The value of Japanese-owned UST is up 5.4% year over year in March, lol.

Meanwhile the value of official China-owned is down 14.8% yoy, but China notoriously owns UST through stealth mechanisms, often in the UK and Belgium where ownership is up 19% and 12.9% yoy respectively.

Hard to say what's going on there with the most trusted name in nothing.

Month over month in March 2026 the total value of all foreign-owned is barely down 1.5%, which is neither unusual nor indicative of much of anything. 

On a year over year basis, there were just five net "sellers" among the major foreign holders: China, Taiwan, Switzerland, India (down nearly 24%!), and Brazil (down 19%!). 

Officially anyway, BRIC of the BRICS raising hard currency for some reason lol oil.

Japan, China lead foreign government retreat from U.S. Treasurys as Gulf War stokes currency fears

Daleep Singh: I personally don’t think the bond-vigilante trade will be alive very long

 

 The bond market is flashing a warning over Iran. A veteran of energy geopolitics explains the risk

... A deal would have to be guaranteed by a trusted third party. There’s no trust at all between the U.S. and Tehran right now, because the bombs have been dropping every time they’ve sat down to negotiate. That’s where China comes in, and I’ll be interested to hear more details of what was said and agreed in Beijing [during Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping]. ...

You have got to be kidding me. 

China is the primary beneficiary of the world's sanctioned oil.

 

 

Emperor Xi says, Next!

 Russia’s Putin to meet China’s Xi in Beijing from May 19-20, Beijing and Moscow say

Trump cares as little for freedom in Taiwan as he does in Ukraine

 Trump told Xi ‘I don’t talk about’ whether U.S. would defend Taiwan from China

Biden meanwhile publicly committed to the defense of Taiwan right out of the gate in 2021 after a U.S. freedom of navigation exercise in the South China Sea by the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group in late January, and multiple times thereafter in 2021, 2022, and 2024.

Trump is truly disgraceful.

Barron's/AFP, Feb 5, 2021:

... The new US administration has said its commitment to Taiwan is "rock-solid," with officials in Washington signalling that they will not tolerate any expansionist moves by Beijing. ...

 

There is almost nothing Athenian about China, nor Spartan about the United States

But here we are.

Does THE GRAUNIAD even know that Sparta won that war?

Does Xi? 

Meanwhile "Make America Great Again" handed our adversaries the rhetorical cudgel of decline wielded by Xi against Trump. 

America is great when it stands for human freedom, something Trump is too shallow to grasp. The very word strikes terror into the hearts of the Chicoms, and is our greatest weapon against them.

But under Trump America has betrayed freedom in Ukraine, and acted more like imperial Athens in the Persian Gulf than like Sparta.

The attack on Iran is looking more and more like the failed Sicilian Expedition every day. 

Aftermath: Trump Is Wrecking the U.S. Military

If Xi wants to win, he'll act more like Sparta and let the real Athens destroy itself. 

 

 

 

I wonder how many of the groceries are still alive

 36-year-old left the U.S. for China—now pays $1,000 rent and $100 for groceries for family of 4

Trump cuts off the flow of Iranian oil with blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, about 1.5 million barrels per day, China most hurt

 Trump says U.S. will blockade Strait of Hormuz after Iran peace talks fail

 Iran sends millions of oil barrels to China through Strait of Hormuz even as war chokes the waterway

 

Drudge is running propaganda for the Chicom bond market now

 

Chinese govt bonds emerge as lone haven...

 

https://en.people.cn/n3/2026/0327/c90000-20440521.html

... "By allocating to RMB bonds, foreign investors can reduce portfolio volatility and improve risk-adjusted returns." ... "In the face of frequent geopolitical risks, the safe-haven role of RMB bonds has emerged," Yu said, adding that as the RMB internationalization progresses, demand for RMB assets as reserves is growing, and this is expected to support the growth of RMB bonds holdings by central banks and sovereign wealth funds.                                                                                        

LOL, what a crock.

Foreign investors own less than $1 trillion of Chinese debt, compared with over $9 trillion of U.S. debt.

... [U.S.] Treasuries are relied upon by global central banks as the pre-eminent reserve asset, since the $30tn market for the securities is the biggest and deepest in the world. ...

More. 

 

Some foreign holders of U.S. Treasury securities are selling them to buy oil, which is denominated in DOLLARS, not in yuan

 Thank you for your attention to this matter.

DXY: 99.893 

Foreign central banks sell US Treasuries in wake of Iran war

 

Strategic victory for Iran (and China): Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz is the primary result of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran so far

... So far in March, the first full month of war, barely six vessels per day on average have traversed the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the world, in either direction. That compares with about 135 a day in normal times, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Over that time, 80% of the small number of oil tankers exiting the strait have been Iranian — or belong to countries with which it is on cordial terms, the figures show. ...

Out of the 110 individual ships that left the gulf this month, more than 36% were sanctioned Iranian ships or part of the so-called dark fleet serving Tehran, data compiled by Bloomberg show. For oil tankers, 21 out of 35 that have exited had direct Iranian ties — but most of the remainder went to nations with whom Tehran has a friendly relationship. 

Until this war, one long-held assumption around Hormuz was that Iran would never attempt to close the strait, for fear of risking its own exports, a vital economic lifeline. In fact, ship-tracking data suggest that Tehran’s oil has continued to flow — almost entirely to China — even as other ships are stranded and producers in the region have been left scrambling for alternatives or forced to stop producing as storage fills up.

Iran exported roughly 1.8 million barrels a day this month, a nearly 8% increase from its average over 2025, according to figures from data intelligence firm Kpler as of March 26. That likely facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars of oil revenue for Tehran, a Bloomberg News analysis shows. ...

More. 

Drone swarms of unknown origin numbering 12-15 interfered with B-52 attack runs to Iran at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana for four hours per incident the week of March 9

 Sophisticated drones attacked Louisiana’s Barksdale bomber base 

... Barksdale AFB does not have air defenses, nor does it have fighter jets that can take down drones.

The airbase does have some electronic countermeasures that were designed to disable GPS and the datalinks between the drones and their remote operators. The electronic countermeasures failed to work. ...

The drones could have come from a potential adversary, China being best equipped to produce a drone of the type that flew over Barksdale. From what has been observed, the drone design surpasses almost anything in the US arsenal.

What we know is that the drones had extraordinary range, could resist broad spectrum jamming, and featured non-commercial signal characteristics. Even more provocatively, the drones used various ingress and egress routes and operated in dispersed patterns, making traceability (via trying to triangulate on signals) virtually impossible.

We do not know if the drones transmitted information while they were over the base or stored information they transmitted later, or whether the drones may have had satellite links.

... realistically the US is years away from a real domestic counter drone capability.                                                                                                                                                                                                                Hot Air covered the story yesterday.

Tanker traffic out of the Persian Gulf has been cut by 98% in one month because of the Iran War, effectively reducing the world's primary energy inputs through the Strait of Hormuz by 20%

The UAE is bypassing the Strait of Hormuz with 1.9 million barrels per day now coming out of Fujairah via its overland pipeline, and Saudi Arabia's overland pipeline west to Yanbu is moving about 4.5 million barrels per day out through the Red Sea, but that's not the 20 million barrels per day lost due to the war, and no LNG is moving at all.

Pakistan and Bangladesh get two thirds of their LNG from the Gulf, Taiwan gets one third of its LNG. Taiwan says its has eleven days' supply remaining. Many others are also severely affected by the cut-off of LNG from Qatar. About 20 LNG tankers are trapped in the Gulf, half the global fleet available for charter.

Meanwhile Iran has increased export of its oil from 1 million barrels per day in February to 2 million in March, 90% of which goes to China, and Iran is now charging tolls to vessels to exit the Gulf along its coast, which occurs only under Iranian escort. 

 

 

Trump's whopper of the week: The ten vessels Iran let through Hormuz on March 22-23 were a present to the United States lol

 Trump says Iran let 10 oil ships through Strait of Hormuz as ‘present’ to U.S.

... “That was three days ago, and I didn’t think much about it,” he said. ...                                     

No kidding.

This cockamamie idea sounds like it was thought up by Howard Lutnick.

The vessels went to China and India, and transited along the coast of Iran after passing between Qeshm and Larak and did not take the usual central passage, so they probably had to pay tolls. 

I wonder if they sent the bill to Mexico? 🤣

Sounds more like a gift to our competitors and enemies than to us. 

UKMTO reported ten transits two days ago, but not all were oil, and some were outbound and some inbound; this summary is probably what someone showed to Trump and they just assumed it was all oil outbound when it was not: 

 

Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, selectively allows a trickle of ships to pass

Traffic is trickling through Strait of Hormuz: Who’s moving through and who’s still stranded

 

... The blockade has squeezed shipping traffic to a trickle, with just 21 tankers transiting the route since the war began on Feb. 28, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, compared to more than 100 ships daily before the conflict. ... Iran has continued to ship millions of barrels of crude oil to China since the war began. ... From March 1 to March 15, a total of 11 China-linked vessels transited through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, mostly general cargo ships ...  

This is completely unpatriotic because it helps China, just like Mad King Ludwig's Ukraine policy is completely unpatriotic because it helps Russia

 Michael Savage used to warn us about the enemy within. Unfortunately America elected him.

80-90% of Iranian oil is bought by China, the proceeds from which Iran uses to buy raw materials from China to make ballistic missiles.

Trump is insane. 

U.S. is allowing Iranian oil tankers through Strait of Hormuz: Bessent

Iran attacks vessels in the Persian Gulf but ships its own oil to China, threatens to mine the Strait of Hormuz as U.S. littoral combat ships prove inadequate as replacements for legacy minesweepers decommissioned last year

Three cargo ships struck off Iran’s coast, UK says, including one in Strait of Hormuz 

... The UKMTO said it had received 17 reports of incidents affecting vessels operating in and around the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman between Feb. 28, when the war began, and March 11. These include 13 attack reports and four reports of suspicious activity. ...

Iran sends millions of oil barrels to China through Strait of Hormuz even as war chokes the waterway  

... Iran has sent at least 11.7 million barrels of crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz since the war began on Feb. 28, all of which were headed to China, Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers, told CNBC on Tuesday.

The firm monitors vessel movements with satellite imagery, allowing it to capture vessels that would otherwise go undetected if their tracking systems are switched off. Many vessels have “gone dark” after Tehran threatened to attack any vessel attempting to pass through the waterway. ...

Over the years, China has built up large crude stockpiles, accumulating an estimated 1.2 billion barrels of inventory as of January, which could fulfill demand for 3 to 4 months, according to Atlantic Council. ...

U.S. forces sink 16 Iranian minelayers as reports say Tehran is mining the Strait of Hormuz 

... A CNN report Tuesday said that Iran had started laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, albeit not extensively. Sources that CNN spoke to said only a “few dozen” had been laid in recent days.

The report also said that Iran still retains more than 80% of its small boats and minelayers, and could feasibly lay hundreds of mines in the waterway.  

Located between Oman and Iran, the strait saw roughly 13 million barrels of crude per day passing through it in 2025, representing about 31% of all seaborne crude flows, according to energy consulting firm Kpler. ...

CBS News, which reported that Iran “may be getting ready” to deploy naval mines, said the country was using smaller crafts that can carry two to three mines each to lay them in the strait. While Iran’s mine stock isn’t publicly known, estimates over the years have ranged from roughly 2,000 to 6,000 naval mines, the report said. ...

... the U.S. had decommissioned four Avenger-class minesweepers that were stationed in Bahrain in late 2025.

The replacement vessels for the Avenger-class, the Independence-class littoral combat ships, have “struggled to meet the requirements of operational mine countermeasures missions,” according to global naval publication Naval News.

The Chicoms have been the primary source for Iran's sodium perchlorate for twenty years, without which its ballistic missile program would not exist

Iran ships most of its oil to China, and China sends back the ingredients for weapons of mass destruction.

 

 Laden Iranian ships depart Chinese port tied to key military chemicals (March 7, 2026)

... “China could have held these vessels at port, imposed an administrative delay, invented a customs hold — any number of bureaucratic tools, but didn’t,” said Isaac Kardon, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to The Post. “That’s a deliberate policy choice made during an active war in which Beijing publicly calls for restraint.”

Although IRISL operates as a large commercial carrier, Kardon said the circumstances of these shipments strongly suggest the cargo is sodium perchlorate. “Given the track record, the most parsimonious explanation is that they’re loading the same commodity they’ve been shuttling for the past year-plus,” he said. ...

The U.S. and Israel strikes have hammered Iran’s missile storage bunkers and underground depots. “Tehran’s need for propellant precursors just went from urgent to existential,” Kardon told The Post.  

 

 Western intelligence says Iran is rearming despite UN sanctions, with China’s help  (October 31, 2025)

  ... European intelligence sources say several shipments of sodium perchlorate, the main precursor in the production of the solid propellant that powers Iran’s mid-range conventional missiles, have arrived from China to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas since the so-called “snapback” mechanism was triggered at the end of September.

Those sources say the shipments, which began arriving on September 29, contain 2,000 tons of sodium perchlorate bought by Iran from Chinese suppliers in the wake of its 12-day conflict with Israel in June. The purchases are believed to be part of a determined effort to rebuild the Islamic Republic’s depleted missile stocks. Several of the cargo ships and Chinese entities involved are under sanctions from the United States. ...