As I understand it, other countries' "belief in our debt" has little to do with their treasury holding levels. All countries that net export products to the US tend to end up owning T-bills proportionate to their export surplus. This is because their banks end up with a bunch of US-Dollar-denominated cash from exchanges by the exporting companies, and getting a return of even 1.5% (our 2-year interest rate) is better than 0% on cash.
The treasury level rising and falling is not usually intentional or by itself sinister, merely a byproduct of a fluctuating export surplus.
This article has a nice illustration of the process:
The treasury level rising and falling is not usually intentional or by itself sinister, merely a byproduct of a fluctuating export surplus.
This article has a nice illustration of the process:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/03/infogra...
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/03/infogra...