Developing countries owe Chinese lenders at least $1.1 trillion, according to a new data analysis published Monday, which says more than half of the thousands of loans China has doled out over two decades are due as many borrowers struggle financially.
Overdue loan repayments to Chinese lenders are soaring, according to AidData, a university research lab at William & Mary in Virginia, which found that nearly 80% of China’s lending portfolio in the developing world is currently supporting countries in financial distress.
For years, Beijing marshalled its finances toward funding infrastructure across poorer countries – including under an effort that Chinese leader Xi Jinping branded as his flagship “Belt and Road Initiative,” which launched a decade ago this fall.
That funding flowed liberally into roads, airports, railways and power plants from Latin America to Southeast Asia and helped power economic growth among borrowing countries. Along the way, it drew many governments closer to Beijing and made China the world’s largest creditor, while also sparking accusations of irresponsible lending.
If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $1.1 trillion, that’s the bank’s problem.
Except this bank has an army
Which they are more then free to deploy… at a cost.
Sadly any country is going to have to weigh the cost of war, the cost of losing that war, the cost of losing personnel/equipment in that war, and the cost of basically ruining the physical assets they are trying to collect due to sabotage, collateral damage, misfires, and “misappropriation.”
Sadly by the time they are done, the market value of those assets would be purely theoretical at best, if any value at all.
So it doesn’t make sense for a country like China to invade the greater portion of Africa. But they might try sting operations, or devaluing of African assets within their own market to put pressure.
The risks being that the “belt and road” initiative might fall through too whatever the choice.
No, so they just appropriate the places they cared about with their investments from the start, such as rare earth mines.
China don’t need to deploy their army. They can simply threaten to cease all trades. No countries can afford to stop trading with China since practically everything are manufactured there. Even Taiwan, China’s mortal enemy, still trades with China.
You make a good point. Everyone likes to think they can just switch production to India or Vietnam but they have no idea how large the manufacturing industry is there. No other country could replace it or match their speed. All those quality items you like have components or are entirely made in China.
You can fight and win wars without ever setting foot in another country.
More like if you owe the mob $100 and you fail to pay, you might get a broken finger. If you owe the mob $1 million and fail to pay they will gift you cement boots.