Beijing: China held an internal conference with foreign and domestic bank representatives to discuss ways of protecting overseas assets from potential US sanctions, media reports said on Sunday.
The emergency meeting between officials from China’s central bank and finance ministry, as well as foreign and domestic bank executives, was held on April 22.
“If China attacks Taiwan, decoupling of the Chinese and western economies will be far more severe than [decoupling with] Russia, because China’s economic footprint touches every part of the world,” one of the people briefed on the meeting told The Financial Times on Sunday.
Beijing had been put on alert by the ability of Washington and its allies to freeze the Russian central bank’s dollar assets, the newspaper report said.
According to the report, Chinese officials were worried that such measures could be taken against China in the event of a regional military conflict or other crisis.
The newspaper specified that a possible trigger for US sanctions against China could be a potential invasion of Taiwan.
China has repeatedly criticized the US for maintaining official contacts with Taiwan, saying that such actions infringe on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and provoke instability in the region.
Beijing has also threatened to take the self-governed island with force.
