Watch | China mocks Washington's $40 trillion 'Frankenstein Monster'

US debt has reached over $40 trillion, with the debt-to-GDP ratio reaching over 120 per cent. It already spends roughly $1.1 trillion annually on net interest payments to service the debt. The poor fiscal management of the US government has drawn mockery from its primary rival China. Chinese media is calling it “Frankenstein's monster- a creation of its own making that has grown beyond its creator's control.”

Chinese state-owned media recently released an AI video mocking the US strategy of “borrowing new money to pay old bills". It portrayed Washington as an ”Eagle" addicted to military spending, standing at the counter of a retail outlet and purchasing new military equipment.

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China's state commentary pointed out that it took nearly a century for the US debt to reach $1 trillion then “debt climbed from $10 trillion in 2008 to $20 trillion in 2017, before surpassing $30 trillion in 2022. It took only about four years to add another $10 trillion”.It said that the US addiction to “military expansion abroad has only poured more fuel on the fiscal fire”.

The US debt is not an isolated problem for the US only. Decades after the birth of the Bretton Woods system, the dollar still remains the world's primary reserve currency, while U.S. Treasury securities sit at the heart of global financial markets. If the US maintains high interest rates for fiscal management and to deal with inflation, capital will flow towards dollar-dominated assets, and it will hurt other economies. It will also erode confidence in the international financial system. The elites in Washington are divided, and the politicians seem increasingly polarised, prioritising “short-term gains over long-term responsibility”.