China publicly intervened for the first time in America’s looming debt crisis yesterday, demanding the US take ‘concrete measures’ to prevent a default on government debt that could be globally catastrophic.

China is the U.S’s biggest foreign creditor, holding at least £794 billion in US Treasury bonds, and its leaders warned Washington against jeopardising its huge stake in the American economy.

Expressing concern over the continuing deadlock in Washington about raising the government’s debt ceiling, China’s vice finance minister, Zhu Guangyao, said the ‘clock was ticking’ for the U.S.

As the world’s two biggest economies, ‘China and the US are inseparable,’ he said.

Referring to a similar Washington impasse in 2011 that led to the humiliating downgrading of America’s credit rating, Mr Zhu said: ‘We hope the United States fully understands the lessons of history.’

The U.S. has until October 17th to agree to raise its debt ceiling or the Treasury will run out of money to pay what it owes.