ROME, July 23 (Reuters) - Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who will visit the White House on Thursday, said that U.S. President Joe Biden had never challenged her on the issue of Rome being part of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Meloni leads the only major Western country to have joined China’s BRI scheme, which envisions rebuilding the old Silk Road to connect China with Asia, Europe and beyond with large infrastructure spending.
I follow African local politics rather closely and have many friends on the continent, and I’ve yet to see any Africans say that Chinese loans carry such requirements. However, nearly every African country has commented on the exploitative nature of WorldBank and IMF loans, which often come with policy requirements, such as privatization of public infrastructure and restriction on wages.
I did see an airport that was supposedly taken over in Uganda by China, but there’s been no corroborating evidence, despite almost two years having passed since the story was broken, and in fact, the president of Uganda came out and said that at the time the story broke, Uganda hadn’t even left the grace period on their loan, much less defaulted on it.
Why would they spell out that sort of requirement? You are assuming they are operating in the open, in good faith.
They have a history of doing this sort of thing.
I don’t think the IMF or anybody should be screwing over borrowers but at least it’s in the open where you and I, the concerned public, can do something.
Why would Africans spell out that requirement? Because they’re the ones who are taking the loans, and so have the best understanding of the terms of said loans. I didn’t ask why China isn’t talking about this, I said that I’ve yet to see any African people or politicians, despite being heavily invested in African politics, and having many friends on the continent, say anything negative about the Chinese loans. Can you show me some Africans taking about this, or do you only have US media and state dept links?
Also, what do you mean the concerned public can do something about the IMF? What effective methods do you know of to prevent IMF exploitative loans that can be done by the regular public?