…at least in comparison to other great powers, economically speaking.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Foreign_Holders_of_United_States_Treasury_Securities-percent_share.gif — The Chinese own 24% of our national debt. That’s a little under 1 trillion of our 6 trillion dollar deficit.
But check this out: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2186rank.html — we’re not doing that bad. Our debt is close to 100% of our GDP, yes, but we’re still ranked 22nd (at the time of this writing) in terms of deficit vs. GDP in comparison to other heavily industrialized countries.
For example. Japan has relatively more debt than we do! So do Italy and Germany AND Canada, who are all potential great, if not super powers.
