NPR.

This is the Indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Paddy Hirsch.

And I'm Daryen Woods.

China used to be the biggest foreign owner of US Treasury securities, but not anymore.

Recently China reduced its holdings of American government debt by more than 9% to less than

a trillion dollars.

Now, the amount of US Treasury's outstanding is more than $30 trillion.

So, $981 billion isn't that much in comparison, but it is still a lot of money.

And it's kind of a big deal when the country that used to be your biggest customer decides

that it doesn't want to be your biggest customer anymore.

So, you don't have to look very far to find people who are worried about this.

Some investors and pundits are concerned that there might be this future where the US

won't be able to find enough buyers for all the debt that it wants to sell.

And the US might have to price it higher in order to sell that debt.

They might have to increase interest rates in other words.

And some people have even darker fears, like China wants to hurt America by dumping its

debt and spooking the market, crashing the US economy, and maybe persuading all the other

buyers of US debt that it's not such a safe investment after all.

Leak.

On today's show, we're going to look at China's holdings of US Treasury debt.

We're going to find out just how big a deal it is that China's buying less of it.

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