Selling U.S. debt also should not work given the numbers. It is believed that China has ~$1.2 trillion of U.S. debt instruments. If China were to sell all of that at one time, it would surely raise rates in this country, but such a move is easier said than done. However, if they did, the buyer of last resort would be the Federal Reserve, who could obviously soak up the selling. Moreover, as the good folks at GaveKal point out:
In the event, however, it is likely that Trump would invoke the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which gives the US president all the legal authority he would need to freeze Chinese-owned treasury securities held by US custodians.
