10.701 trillion dollars - foreign holdings

Wall Street Journal had this slant on the news: China Owns a Lot More U.S. Debt Than Previously Thought. While China holds $1.160 trillion and Japan, number two, holds $882 billion - there is still massive amount of debt held by other foreign nations.

Shouldn't the story be that the US has had to rely on foreign countries to "purchase" our debt? Imagine the interest payments.