Chinese companies now hold $14.2 trillion dollars, more than even their American counterparts. On top of this, Hong Kong based companies own an additional $571 million. This companies with the $13.1 trillion dollars held by American companies. With the Chinese economy slowing down, however, these high debt levels could become a burden.
These already high debt levels are projected to surge past the $20 trillion dollar mark by 2018, and analysts actually believe that Chinese companies alone will hold a third of the world’s debt. Standard & Poor’s is taking an increasingly negative outlook on Chinese firms, citing the slowing economy, among other things, as a risk.