--- title: China's Corporate Debt Surpassed the US description: But analysts warn that as much as one-third of the loans originated from China's shadow banking sector canonical: https://time.com/2886946/china-corporate-debt/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-17T13:00:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:08:15.919Z article:section: World og:title: China's Corporate Debt Surpassed the US og:description: But analysts warn that as much as one-third of the loans originated from China's shadow banking sector og:url: https://time.com/2886946/china-corporate-debt/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: China's Corporate Debt Surpassed the US twitter:description: But analysts warn that as much as one-third of the loans originated from China's shadow banking sector twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Chart Shows How China Just Surpassed the US  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Jun 17, 2014 1:00 PM CUT  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Jun 17, 2014 1:00 PM CUT China’s corporate debt raced ahead of the US by more than $1 trillion in 2013, to $14.2 trillion, beating analysts’ forecasts by one year, according to a report released Monday by Standard & Poor’s. The new report highlighted not only the growing clout of China’s financial sector, but also its growing appetite for risk. S&P estimates that one-quarter to one-third of the debt originated from China’s shadow banking sector, a system of informal lending that operates outside of government oversight. A series of defaults in that sector alone could expose one-tenth of the world’s corporate debt to a sudden contraction, the report warns. “Given the substantial share that shadow banking contributes in financing not just China’s corporate borrowers but also local and regional government financing vehicles, a sharp contraction would be detrimental for business generally,” the analysts wrote. One graph in particular showed that the risks might be thriving in the shadows. S&P compared cash flows and indebtedness among China’s corporations to 8,500 of their global peers. These measures together offer a rough gauge of their ability to repay loans, and unfortunately here too, China surpasses the rest of the world.  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2886946/china-corporate-debt/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2886946/china-corporate-debt/"},"headline":"This Chart Shows How China Just Surpassed the US","datePublished":"2014-06-17T13:00:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:15.919Z","description":"But analysts warn that China's growing appetite for debt coincides with a growing appetite for risk","url":"https://time.com/2886946/china-corporate-debt/","keywords":["Money","China","global economy","us","risk","loans","lending"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2886946/china-corporate-debt/","name":"This Chart Shows How China Just Surpassed the US"}}]}] ```