system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: With most countries so far in debt, how does China have all this money to loan other countries like the U.S. and U.K.
gpt
That's not how sovereign debt works.

Sovereign debt exists as bonds. A country offers bonds on the market, and other countries buy them as investments. A bond is basically a contract between the bond issuer (usually a government) and the bond holder (whoever buys it) that says "The issuer agrees to pay the holder the value of this bond plus X% interest on [DATE]." US Treasury Bonds are seen as a **very** safe investment because the US **always** pays when and what it says it will pay. This means that the US can offer incredibly low interest rates on its bonds.

A US T-bond is safer than a bank account, safer than gold, hell it's safer than burying your money in the yard. If you have a whole bunch of money and you want to keep it safe for a decade or so, you can't do better than buying US bonds.