Beijing. Zhongnanhai. 3 PM Local Time.
The minister had watched the livestream twice and had read the announcement three times and had spent the hours since thinking about the difference between his situation and Washington's.
Washington was scared of what Liam Scott might do. Beijing was scared of what the platform would show.
Those were different fears and they produced different responses.
Washington could afford to be cautious because the gap between America's disclosed and actual fiscal position, while significant, was a story its political system had the infrastructure to manage. It was a bad story. It was not an existential one.
