Again, the US is resorting to underhanded tactics. Legislators have joined forces to introduce a bill, threatening to expel China from the dollar settlement system and freeze its assets in the US.

However, the reaction on Chinese internet platforms was completely opposite to what the American legislators expected. Chinese netizens applauded enthusiastically: "Is there such a good thing?"

Seemingly harsh financial sanctions actually turned out to be a "divine assistance" for China. Is this an act of strategic deterrence by the US, or is it a self-inflicted wound that has sounded the death knell for the dollar hegemony?

I. Sanctioning China, hurting itself first

On August 1, 2025, the Democratic and Republican parties in the US, an unusual alliance, introduced a proposal named the "Stop China and Russia Act (STOP China and Russia Act)", with two main points:

Freeze the assets of Chinese citizens and companies in the US, even if you just own an apartment in New York or have an account on Wall Street;

cut off Chinese financial institutions' access to the dollar settlement system, which is equivalent to kicking banks out of the international financial group.

The stated reason is "China secretly supports Russia", but in reality, it's still about using this proposal to appropriate the huge wealth of Chinese enterprises or Chinese immigrants into their own pockets.

This move can be described as harming others without benefitting oneself, and it is entirely harmful to the US, with no benefits at all. Through this law, US legislators and officials can conveniently appropriate some wealth into their own pockets.

But the one who suffers is the US itself, causing great harm to the dollar hegemony and the global financial and trade order led by the US.

China-US trade and economy are like being on the same boat. In the short term, the US cannot do without China, and China finds it difficult to get rid of the influence of the US. China holds nearly $1 trillion in US Treasury bonds, and US companies rely on the Chinese supply chain, while Wall Street depends on cross-border transactions for its income.

Now, if they start drilling holes in the boat, China can immediately rely on its strong supply chain and manufacturing capabilities to establish a global RMB international payment and trade system, but can the US do the same?

Since June 2025, China has completely stopped purchasing US oil and gas, causing them a loss of $30 billion and a 30% staff reduction. Imagine what would happen if China sold its US Treasury bonds; the stock market might see a scene of people lining up on the rooftop.

Sanctioning China hurts the US itself.

II. Accelerated De-Dollarization: China's "Backup Plan" Becomes the Main Player

The US may have forgotten that China has long stopped believing in the "dollar hegemony".

The Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) has connected 42 countries, covering 38% of global trade;

Digital RMB has taken a big step forward, directly connecting to 10 ASEAN countries and 6 Middle Eastern countries, cutting the cost of cross-border transactions in half and doubling efficiency, while bypassing SWIFT monitoring.

The most embarrassing part is that 99.6% of Sino-Russian trade is settled in RMB, followed by Saudi Arabia and Iran.

When the US used the global payment system to sanction Russia, all sovereign countries realized that holding dollars or dollar assets was not safe.

De-dollarization has been proceeding systematically, and now the US passing this bill is equivalent to accelerating the process of de-dollarization.

Looking at the BRICS countries. Trump threatened in July that "any country joining BRICS will face a 10% tariff," and Brazilian President Lula retorted: "The world doesn't need an emperor!" Now even India has thoughts of uniting against the US, because Trump imposed a 50% retaliatory tariff on India, so they decided to "defect" for survival.

The harder the US swings its financial sanctions, the more countries run towards the RMB bloc like cats whose tails have been stepped on.

III. The Sunset of Dollar Hegemony: A Self-Induced Funeral

The pillars of the dollar hegemony were once the "consumer country - producer country - resource country" triangle. The US prints money to buy goods, the producer country earns dollars to buy resources, and the resource country buys US weapons. A perfect loop, making easy profits for 50 years.

But now the chain has broken. China monopolizes one-third of global production capacity and has started building its own "private traffic flow": establishing an independent payment system, stockpiling gold reserves, and forming a BRICS friendship circle. Even its military technology has caught up, making the US's "table-flipping deterrence" ineffective.

The Trump administration has recently been fixated on achieving "zero trade deficit", hoping to return the world to the old dream where "the US produces everything and other countries do the labor."

When the joint statement of the 11 BRICS countries criticized US tariffs, the scepter of the global supply chain had already quietly changed hands.

Looking back at the netizens' words "Is there such a good thing?", it's not sarcasm, but rather a clear understanding of the chessboard. The US legislators' financial nuclear bomb did not cause panic in China, but instead revealed a glimmer of a new world emerging from the cracks of the old order.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7535826417922163219/

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