As of 2024, 70% of debt is owed domestically, i.e. bonds are owned primarily by people within the US. Only 30% of US debt is owned by foreign interests.
Foreign debt is mostly owned by Japan:
Japan, $1,061 billion, 12.4% of foreign debt
China, $759 billion, 8.87%
United Kingdom, $722 billion, 8.44%
It’s only when you group together all “European countries” that they collectively hold the most debt.
Beijing’s stockpile fell to US$682.6 billion in November, down from US$688.7 billion in October, according to US Treasury Department data released on Thursday.
That marks the lowest level since September 2008 and a nearly 10 per cent drop since last January, according to financial data provider Wind.
The idea behind grouping them is that all those “european countries” can act as one through EU coordination. So it makes no sense to separate them when talking about negotiating power.
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RS22331
As of 2024, 70% of debt is owed domestically, i.e. bonds are owned primarily by people within the US. Only 30% of US debt is owned by foreign interests.
Foreign debt is mostly owned by Japan:
It’s only when you group together all “European countries” that they collectively hold the most debt.
Here’s a more updated figure from 2025:
https://www.pgpf.org/article/the-federal-government-has-borrowed-trillions-but-who-owns-all-that-debt/
It seems like a trend right now is that China is divesting from the US:
https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3340164/china-dumps-more-us-debt-buys-other-assets-trump-targets-powell
The idea behind grouping them is that all those “european countries” can act as one through EU coordination. So it makes no sense to separate them when talking about negotiating power.
https://fortune.com/2026/01/18/europe-retaliation-8-trillion-sell-america-us-debt-bonds-stocks-trade-war-greenland-trump/
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260120-bessent-says-europe-dumping-us-debt-over-greenland-would-defy-logic
It doesn’t miss me that this is the desire or intent of this communication, I guess for me it raises all kinds of questions like:
That said, I support the EU on this - I hope they figure it out!