WOW the thing about debt is, if we stopped trading with China obviously theres something BIG AND BAD going on in the world right? obviously we would cancel our debt to them you fucking idiot. yes this would cause a financial crisis and rampant inflation but it is doable in the case of such an EXTREME situation (as this would obviously be). see: Russian financial crisis of 1998 in which Russia defaulted on its debt and has since pretty much recovered economically