Trump’s New Trade War Weapon Might Just Be Antique China Debt

President Donald Trump’s next move in an increasingly fraught trade war with China could be one for the history books, literally. The Trump administration has been studying the unlikely prospect of reviving century-old claims on Chinese bonds sold before the founding of the communist People’s Republic.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of these 5% Hukuang Railways Sinking Fund Gold Loan of 1911 bonds—issued in 1911 by a consortium of banks in London, Berlin, Paris, and New York—appear to have survived.

Source: George H. LaBarre Galleries

The defaulted China bonds can be found in the attics and basements of thousands of Americans, or on EBay, where the certificates sell as collectibles for as little as a few hundred dollars each. The PRC, which succeeded the Republic of China after it replaced the imperial dynasty, has never recognized the debt, ...