https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43617956 (citations)
But I think you underplay how much damage the US could do to the Chinese economy, if (for instance) they repudiated the debt. Or, if they heavy trading partners to drop favourable trade terms to gain back US markets. I think people would be insane to give in but from time to time this kind of thing happens for a short term win. We recently pumped a shitload-and-a-half of money back into the pacrim island economies, to displace China as a trade and security partner having taken our eye off the "backyard" as it is disparagingly called.
As Xi would say, "Eat bitterness" (a Chinese idiom signifying enduring hardship and suffering without complaint, often seen as a virtue of perseverance and resilience). Can Americans endure hardship incurred by a brutal global trade war? If so, for how long? Such a natural experiment is about to occur, which is interesting, exciting, and terrifying simultaneously.
Xi Jinping calls on young Chinese to embrace hardship - https://www.thinkchina.sg/society/xi-jinping-calls-young-chi... - June 16th, 2023
"We don't care. China has been here for 5,000 years. Most of the time there was no United States, and we survived. And we expect to survive for another 5,000 years."
The risk of losing their profit is what I meant by repudiating the debt.
Chinese investor interests hold ~ $800b of debt. Thats not the state, but it is doubtful the state would bail them out: They pick and chose how to fix problems like this and I think the message "You invested in America not us, you wear the risk" would be beneficial to them.