China can and should be measured by the same terms as Western economies, they're bound by the same constraints. There's nothing literally magical about China and their government isn't omnipotent, no more than the Soviets were.

The primary debt problem in the US, is the public debt of the US Government. The US Govt can decide to 'forget' their debt, they're going to use inflation to do it over time (that is, quantitative easing, debt monetization). US Government debt will increasingly be held internally as a percentage, as it expands by $700b-$1t per year. There are no external buyers for that much debt and they can't afford the high interest rates it will take to attract that much private capital over time (it'd rapidly swamp the US budget), only the Fed will be able to keep up with it. They'll follow the Japan recipe, holding rates artificially low perpetually to keep debt cheap, while debasing the dollar to stealth default on the debt in order to reduce its real value vs the economy and government finances. That's how Western nations forget their debts.