⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The D.C. Circuit considers whether a U.S. court can hear Noble Capital's claim against the People's Republic of China over historic bonds. Noble says it owns debt issued by earlier Chinese governments between 1898 and 1913. Those bonds included promises protecting their priority against later borrowing. The People's Republic repudiated the historic debt decades ago. The new dispute follows China's 2020 and 2021 dollar-bond issues in Hong Kong, which Noble alleges were sold to U.S. investors. Noble says those sales put newer debt ahead of the old bonds and breached the priority promises. It seeks roughly eleven point five billion dollars in compensation measured by the old principal and interest. In September 2025, the D.C. district court dismissed the case because China was entitled to sovereign immunity. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act ordinarily protects foreign states from suit in U.S. courts, subject to specified exceptions. Noble invokes the commercial activity exception, focusing on new bond sales it says occurred in the United States. Kenneth Noble will seek reversal of the dismissal, arguing those sales caused a new breach rather than merely reviving old unpaid debt. Eric Shumsky, representing China, will argue that the claim's real basis is historic nonpayment abroad, and that the claim is also too late. The district court did not reach the statute of limitations, the legal deadline for bringing a claim. You will also hear pari passu, meaning equal ranking of debt, in contrast to the old bonds' promises of priority. The question is which conduct this suit is really about, and whether that changes the immunity and timeliness analysis.

Noble Capital LLC v. People's Republic of China (No. 25-7156) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, argued October 13, 2026.