United States freeze of People's Republic of China assets (1950-1979)

The United States applied the Foreign Assets Control Regulations to the People's Republic of China, North Korea and their nationals in December 1950. This entry focuses on Chinese property and follows the blocked assets through the 1979 claims settlement and unblocking. The freeze, trade prohibitions, licensing and private claims adjudication were different legal processes.

Blocking and reciprocal claims

The regulations blocked covered property within United States jurisdiction and prohibited specified transactions. Scope depended on the state or national with an interest, the property or account, the intermediary and any licence. The programme should not be described as a quantified seizure because blocking restricted dealing without automatically transferring title.

China separately controlled or took United States property. Those actions created claims by United States nationals but were not the same act as the United States freeze. The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission later adjudicated private claims under statutory programmes.

The Commission records 381 awards with principal of USD 196,858,296 and a claims fund of USD 80.5 million. Those are certified-claim and settlement-fund categories. Neither number is a valuation of all Chinese assets blocked in December 1950.

Settlement and unblocking

Diplomatic relations were normalised on 1 January 1979. The claims agreement signed on 11 May was a separate legal event. China agreed to pay USD 80.5 million, beginning with USD 30 million on 1 October 1979 and five later annual instalments of USD 10.1 million. The United States agreed to unblock covered assets by 1 October 1979.

The freeze therefore ended through negotiated claims settlement and administrative unblocking, not automatically on diplomatic recognition. Its principal statecraft effect was long-duration denial and a stock of bargaining issues that had to be resolved before normal commercial relations could proceed.

See also

Asset freeze · Foreign Assets Control Regulations (US, 1950) · Trading with the Enemy Act (United States, 1917) · United States and allied embargo controls against the People's Republic of China (1950-1971) · United States freeze of Iranian government assets during the hostage crisis (1979-1981)

Sources

1. United States Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, Volume VI*, document 418, pre-freeze policy options and asserted legal basis.
2. United States Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, Volume VI*, document 433, 16-17 December implementation chronology.
3. United States Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, Volume VII, Part 2*, document 249, regulations, licensing and contemporary blocked-asset description.
4. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, Completed China claims programmes, awards, fund and settlement administration.
5. Governments of the United States and the People's Republic of China, Agreement concerning the settlement of claims, 11 May 1979.
6. United States Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume XIII*, document 222, negotiation, unblocking and payment sequence.