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Originally Posted by Great Expectations
When China devalues their currency does our national debt load slow just a little? I know they own a decent portion of it.
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No. Nothing changes with respect to the amount of our national debt.
You're correct that they own a large amount of Treasuries, and you're correct that what they do with their currency has implications for their holdings of Treasuries. But that doesn't directly affect our national debt at all. It's just a transfer from their holdings to those of other investors (or vice versa).
Earlier I mentioned that China is trying to control capital outflows and thus was buying their currency. When they do that, they're selling dollars. And typically they get the dollars to sell by selling Treasury securities.
By letting their currency depreciate (devalue), they actually need to sell fewer dollars and thus fewer Treasury securities.
(My profession by the way is trading interest rates and fixed income markets like Treasuries.)