China has just declared war. Not with missiles, but with lawyers. “Chinese interest in Venezuela will be protected by law.” Beijing did not threaten military action. Instead, they announced something far more dangerous to American power: They are going to make regime change uninsurable. Here is what most analysts are missing: This is not about $19 billion in Venezuelan loans. This is about $1.3 trillion in Belt and Road debt spread across 150 countries. Every dollar China has lent to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific is secured by the same legal assumption: that sovereign leaders can sign contracts which successor governments must honour. But the United States just removed a sitting president from his bedroom and flew him to Manhattan. If that precedent holds, every Belt and Road loan becomes worthless paper. Every port deal, every railway, every power plant—gone. China’s Foreign Ministry did not simply issue a protest. They issued a statement of existential necessity. They will pursue international arbitration. They will invoke bilateral investment treaties. They will take this to every court from The Hague to Singapore. They will make the legal cost of American regime change so catastrophic that the next president thinks twice. Not for Maduro. For the entire architecture of Chinese overseas lending. Trump told Fox: “There won’t be a problem with Xi.” Xi just answered: There will be 10,000 lawyers. Watch the next 90 days. If China successfully enforces a single contract claim against a post-Maduro government—just one—they will have established that American regime change does not void Chinese debt. That is not merely a victory for Venezuela. That is a restructuring of global power. The 21st century will not be decided by aircraft carriers. It will be decided by who writes the contracts— and who can enforce them after the coup.