The US and China have a debtor-creditor relationship, not just a trade relationship.

The claim is that the US and China have a debtor-creditor relationship, not just a trade relationship, as of 2019-08-16. True: US Treasury TIC data or comparable sources show China holding large US debt (around $1 trillion in Treasuries) and the US as a net debtor to China. Mostly true: the relationship is real, with a minor imprecision (for example China not the largest holder at that moment). Mixed: Chinese holdings of US debt are small relative to the trade relationship. Mostly false: China holds negligible US debt. False: there is no debtor-creditor relationship, or China is the net debtor to the US.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Preliminary Report on Foreign Holdings of U.S. Securities at End-June 2019 U.S. Department of the Treasury · 28 February 2020

   “5 | China, mainland (2) | 1,544 | 190 | 225 | 1,125 | 4 |”

2. E2 Japan surpasses China as largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasurys CNBC · 15 August 2019

   “Japan now holds $1.12 trillion Treasurys, and China has $1.11 trillion, a $2 billion increase from the month earlier, according to U.S. Treasury department data.”

3. E3 Charts of the Day: China Unseated as Largest Foreign Holder of U.S. Debt Caixin Global · 16 August 2019

   “China’s hoard of U.S. Treasury bonds, bills and notes grew by $2.3 billion to $1.11 trillion in June”

4. E4 US Treasury securities are the largest ... Congressional Research Service (congress.gov) · 15 January 2021

   “China's share of total foreign holdings of U.S. securities stood at 8% in 2019, down from its all-time high of 15% in 2009.”

Contemporaneous reports citing US Treasury data (E2, E3) show China held about $1.11 trillion in US Treasuries as of June 2019, and the Treasury's end-June 2019 survey (E1) lists mainland China with $1,544 billion in total US securities holdings. This meets the criteria's threshold of roughly $1 trillion in Treasury holdings, establishing a substantial debtor-creditor relationship. Japan had narrowly overtaken China as the largest holder (E2), but the claim does not assert China was the largest. E4 notes China's 8% share of foreign holdings, which does not negate the absolute size of the holdings.