While the article notes the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is not inexhaustible, what specific threshold or 'tipping point' would the US government use to decide between a massive SPR release and other economic interventions?
To what extent does the rising U.S. budgetary deficit act as a primary driver for nations adopting yuan-denominated settlements, rather than it being a purely proactive Chinese policy?
What specific economic or geopolitical failures necessitated China's strategic pivot from attempting a total 'global currency replacement' to focusing more narrowly on 'cross-border trade settlement mechanisms'?