Roughly $9 trillion of US debt is held abroad, raising concerns over exposure as global market nerves grow
The United States’ heavy dependence on foreign financing is facing renewed scrutiny amid rising geopolitical tensions and growing unease among global investors over President Donald Trump’s policy posture, according to reports by Reuters and the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
The US owes around $9 trillion to foreign creditors, a level some analysts have described as an “enormous vulnerability” for Washington, especially as several major economies find themselves at odds with Trump’s increasingly confrontational foreign policy agenda.
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Investor nerves have been rattled in recent months by Trump’s remarks on Greenland and renewed tariff threats against allies and rivals alike—moves that critics argue risk destabilising the existing global order. Market participants say these developments are prompting a reassessment of US assets, long regarded as the world’s safest haven.
Signs of caution are already emerging. Denmark’s largest pension fund has sold roughly $100 million worth of US Treasury bonds, a move it said was driven by portfolio considerations rather than politics. At the same time, bond giant PIMCO has begun pivoting away from US assets, citing concerns over valuations and policy uncertainty, according to people familiar with its strategy.
Trump’s repeated public attacks on Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell have further unsettled investors, raising questions about central bank independence—another cornerstone of confidence in US financial markets.
China and economists raise red flags
Concerns over America’s fiscal trajectory have also been voiced openly in China. Huang Yiping, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China, warned this week that the US debt burden may be on an unsustainable path.
“I’ve heard so many people telling me that [debt] as a share of GDP has been rising and probably will continue to rise. That’s probably not sustainable,” Huang said at an academic forum on the Chinese and American economies organised by the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore.
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