Republican Sens. Martha McSally of Arizona and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee are insisting China make good $1.6 trillion in bonds owed to 20,000 American families issued in the first half of the 20^th century, introducing a resolution on Thursday to demand payment.

While the resolution, if passed, would merely be the reflection of the government and not have the force of law, McSally and Blackburn pointed to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s successful demand in 1987 that the Chinese pay the debt.

Thatcher leveraged a threat of access to British capital markets to get China to agree to pay 23.5 million pounds sterling, Fox News said.

“China has repeatedly failed to honor its obligations to America, taking American families’ money and jobs,” McSally said in a release. “Well, the abuse ends here. We are holding China accountable for their debt and for unleashing the coronavirus on the world. We demand China pay back the $1.6 trillion it owes to American families.”

The bonds were issued between 1900 and 1940, but the then-Chinese government defaulted in 1938. Civil war resulted in the communist party of Mao Zedong claiming control of the country with the nationalist forces fleeing to the island of Formosa, or Taiwan. China still considers Taiwan a renegade province and under international law, mainland China is responsible for the debt.

Bond ratings firms Moody’s, Standard & Poors and Fitch say that by paying some bondholders and not others, Beijing is in what’s referred to as selective default, and cannot access international debt markets until it pays all the bondholders, Fox News said.

Republican Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee is to introduce the same measure in the House of Representatives.

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