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China buys US debt as a balance against the fact that they export so much in goods to the US.

If China and the US were to get into conflict, the cesation of exports would balance out the US's cancelation of debt.

It's not as big of a motivator as you think.

Debt is not a sword of Damocles hanging over the US. Debt is basically China having sent a bunch of actual stuff to the US in return for a promise that the US will make them whole sometime in the future.

And because of inflation, the value that the U.S. has to make China whole by keeps reducing.

If the US sand China went to war, China could keep waving those pieces of paper and the U.S. would simply ignore it.

That's exactly what I'm saying.

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