Why do we "go down" when the Chinese sell U.S. debt? If by debt you mean Treasuries, in case you haven't noticed Treasuries are between .26 and 2.6% yield. In the glory years of Reagan they were in the 8% range. So even if the Chinese sell off, so much that Treasury yields go up many hundred percent above the current values, we're still in 80's territory. I don't remember a huge amount from the 80's, but I don't think we were "going down" then and there's no indication we're "going down" now regardless of how much U.S. debt is sold off by the Chinese. The linkage between the Chinese market and the U.S. market is almost entirely one way, meaning it hurts them a lot if our economy hiccups but it doesn't impact us much if theirs does.