system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why did(does) China lend so much money to the USA?

From what I hear everywhere these days and on articles that America is in debt with China for 1.23 approx trillion dollars.

What I dont understand is, how is China lending this much money to America or Why in the first place? 


China is enjoying a decent economic growth and all though I am not well educated in these matters, it seems to me like China could be using its own money to invest in its own country and on its own population to further increase that economic growth.


People in America dont really give a shit about developing a relationship with China, especially with China being a communist power and also supporting and defending North K-o-r-e-a from western interference. Most of the world still considers China to be a developing or a 3rd world country. Again I might be ignorant about these as I dont know a lot about international politics or have a finance background.
gpt
Sovereign debt isn't really lending as most people are familiar with it.

Nobody is "lending" America money. They are purchasing American treasury bonds. A T-bond is basically a promise from the US government that in X number of years they will pay you the value of the bond plus a small percentage of interest. People buy these bonds because the US government *always* pays. They are a super-safe way to invest money.