Since you kept referring to China's debt situation: China, while not as rich as Japan, is a large net creditor to the rest of the world. When one is told that C

Since you kept referring to China's debt situation: China, while not as rich as Japan, is a large net creditor to the rest of the world. When one is told that China has too much debt, it is about debt Chinese owe to each other. Someone's debt is another person's asset. These internal debt/asset neither makes China poorer nor richer on the whole as they all cancel out at the natinal level.