After just a month, China has overtaken Japan to become the biggest holder of U.S. debt after significantly increasing its U.S. Treasuries holdings.

On Friday, Treasury Department made public data showing China now holds US$1.261 trillion in U.S. government securities at the end of March. This means it has officially overtaken Japan in the No. 1 spot, which previously held US$1.2269 trillion worth of securities, CNN detailed.

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Meanwhile, Belgium's holdings of U.S. Treasuries plummeted to US$252.8 billion in March of this year. The US$92.5-billion decrease bumped Belgium away from its No. 3 spot in February of the same year, said Reuters.

According to analysts, China's U.S. debt holdings increased because its Treasuries in Belgian clearing houses have accumulated, Reuters added.

For several months, Beijing had been disposing of its U.S. Treasuries holdings, making this the first time since August 2014 that it had increased its holdings. Within that same time frame, Japan had been upping its holdings, making way for the latter to grap the top spot among U.S. creditors in April, the report explained.

"This suggests that the run-up is finally starting to unwind, with Chinese holdings spiking $37.3 billion in March," Reuters quotes TD Securities interest rate strategist Gennadiy Goldberg's.

However, this piece of news is only based on data released by the U.S. government. The information given does not include the Chinese government's other purchases made via other institutions. In general, Beijing does not publicize the exact worth of its U.S. Treasuries holdings, the report added.

In the past, China has purchased U.S. Treasuries to maintain the low value of the Chinese yuan. This way, Chinese exports have more edge in the foreign market. But China has now allowed its currency's value to increase because of pressure from the U.S. and also as a bid to stop inflation, CNN said.

Overall international holdings of U.S. Treasuries started plunging in March. At the end of that month, there was a US$23.69 billion decline in what was seen as the biggest monthly decrease since April 2013, Reuters stated.

TagsU.S. Treasuries, U.S. debt