Who owns the US national debt?

Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, the Chinese only own 7.2% of the publicly-held portion of the U.S. national debt.  Of foreign public holders, they are second to the Japanese, who hold 13.2%.  The U.S. public holds 54.4%.

These figures are from the Skeptical Optimist’s pie chart based on Treasury data from January 2007.  Note that the percentages above exclude intragovernmental debt, which the U.S. government owes itself.