We don't owe the Chinese as much as people think

The Chinese own about 8% of our debt--$1.16 trillion of a total debt of $14.3 trillion.  We owe $9.7 trillion to ourselves.  We also owe the Social Security Trust Fund $2.6 trillion.

As far as holders of US debt go, China comes in third.  Note, too, that Social Security can't be in too big a problem if it's been loaning the government trillions of dollars.