Sort of. You are on the right track.
Because of the tariffs China was low on FX/dollar reserves(which they need for international trade), They’ve been selling treasuries all last year, but that caused a problem because it pushed up the USD, causing a flight of capital and making their international trade even more expensive. In sept the reached a crisis where the market was saturated with treasuries causing the repo market to seize up, which forced the FED to step in and start buying treasuries to keep liquidity in the system(this caused a huge run up in stock prices in the next months) But China was already in a deflationary spiral and had to destroy inventories to keep prices afloat (I.e.swine flu avian flu) and prevent unemployment and social unrest. This only worked for a month or two until they had to remove the liabilities from their balance sheet(retired savers , and political dissidents)
Herro Virus. Herro lockdown/quarantines.
It was, at the same time, used as a propagandistic weapon for the west crashing our markets and driving demand for their US treasuries holdings (which they have continued to unload into the repo market) shoring up their cash and allowing them to continue the Ponzi scheme a little longer.
All this will end when China becomes illiquid(run out of treasuries and fx/reserves) their system will crash and bring down all the BRI partners(Italy, Portugal and Spain) who has written loans in yuan last year to roll over their own sovereign debt,
This will rip BRI partners out if the EU and that will cause that structure to fully collapse, (at least the EURO as a common currency)
I don’t know when this will happen, but I suspect it will be ‘when the fever breaks’ Prepare for the fireworks
To be completely honest, the original deal was that that we would guarantee safe passage of their trade lanes with our navy in exchange China would flip against the Soviets in the Cold War. It was really key to winning the Cold War in the end. The idea also was, through trade, once the standard of living improved for the average Chinese, they would demand democratic institutions.
Well as we know things didn’t turn out that way. We should have cut contact and put on sanctions right after the Tianamen Square massacre, as the justification for the relationship no longer existed after the Berlin Wall fell
And only if you need it (to save your life)