China wary of Russia-type sanctions, but Beijing’s ‘financial nuclear bombs’ are a powerful deterrent

Ji Siqi

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Punishing the world’s second-largest economy with destructive financial and economic sanctions – such as expelling China from the international Swift payment system and freezing foreign reserves – had never been publicly considered an option by Washington.

But that changed when they were levied against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Now, the breadth of those sanctions, and the speed at which they were applied, have given Beijing a glimpse of what it could face if it offers support to Moscow or tries to forcefully reunify Taiwan with the Chinese mainland.