China's economy would suffer along with everyone else's. If China ever did call in its debt, it slowly would begin selling off its Treasury holdings. Even at a slow pace, dollar demand would drop. That would hurt China's competitiveness by raising the yuan's value relative to the dollar.
It would greatly impact the economy and people in the U.S. A default would increase interest rates, which could then increase prices and contribute to inflation. The stock market would also suffer, as U.S. investments would not be seen as safe as they once were, especially if the U.S. credit rating was downgraded.
China has steadily accumulated U.S. Treasury securities over the last few decades. As of October 2021, the Asian nation owns $1.065 trillion, or about 3.68%, of the $28.9 trillion U.S. national debt, which is more than any other foreign country except Japan.
Continuing a trend that began early in 2021, China's portfolio of U.S. government debt in May dropped to $980.8 billion, according to Treasury Department data released Monday. That's a decline of nearly $23 billion from April and down nearly $100 billion, or 9%, from the year-earlier month.
From a national perspective, China buys U.S. debt due to its complex financial system. The central bank must purchase U.S. Treasuries and other foreign assets to keep cash inflows from causing inflation.
If the U.S. is forced to sell half of its direct investments in China, that would cost American investors $25 billion a year in capital gains and up to $500 billion in GDP losses, the report said. U.S. businesses risk losing global competitiveness if sweeping policies force separation from China, the report said.
At the turn of this century, Chinese owners owned about 192,000 acres of farmland in the U.S., according to the USDA. By 2019, the USDA says foreign ownership of U.S. acres exceeded 35.2 million acres, a 60 percent increase from the decade prior.
China, U.S. lead rise in global debt to record high $305 trillion - IIF.
Now, Goldberg said, China is shedding U.S. Treasurys to defend its own currency, the yuan, which has lost value as the dollar has become stronger. “What China wants to do is actually manage some of the pace of that depreciation. One of the ways that they do it is by selling the dollars and buying yuan.”
China's debt is more than 250 percent of GDP, higher than the United States.
Can the U.S. Pay Off its Debt? As budget deficits are one of the factors that contribute to the national debt, the U.S. can take measures to pay off its debt through budget surpluses. The last time that the U.S. held a budget surplus was in 2001.
Which Country Owes the Most Money to China? Venezuela is the country with the greatest sovereign debt exposure to China, in terms of direct lending (excluding portfolio holdings), according to AidData's 2021 study, totaling $74.7 billion.
With no money to pay bills and the inability to borrow to pay down debt, the result can eventually be bankruptcy. To avoid them, Congress has to do something it rarely does these days—agree. In this case, agreement has to be reached on how to fund the government and how to borrow enough money to pay the bills.
China represents 29 percent of all treasuries issued to other countries, which corresponds to $1.18 trillion. Japan holds the equivalent of $1.03 trillion in treasuries. Investing in U.S. treasuries is a deliberate strategy for foreign countries.
Manufacturing, services and agriculture are the largest sectors of the Chinese economy – employing the majority of the population and making the largest contributions to GDP.
The most recent data collected under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) shows Chinese investors held a little more than half of 1% of the overall 35.8 million acres of U.S. farmland and forest land under foreign ownership in 2019.
The U.S. Federal Government.
While much of this land was transferred to the new state of Hawaii in 1959, the federal government did keep some.
For example, Canada is top owner of American farmlands at 6.87 million acres; the Netherlands follows at 4.87 million acres; Germany with 1.94 million acres; the United Kingdom at 1.7 million acres; Italy with 1.4 million acres and France with 1.04 million acres.
U.S. trade with China has grown enormously in recent decades and is crucial for both countries. Today, the United States imports more from China than from any other country, and China is one of the largest export markets for U.S. goods and services.
It supports US jobs.
While expanding foreign trade can disrupt US employment, trade with China also creates and supports a significant number of American jobs. Exports to China support nearly 900,000 US jobs, and Chinese companies invested in the United States employ over 160,000 workers.
First, total US debt is roughly $30 trillion. If China sold all its debt, it is only 3.6% of all outstanding US debt. A shock to the system maybe, on the day it happens, but just a temporary shock, not a death blow. Second, consider what's happened to our budget deficit the last couple of years.