Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58679039
China: Big spender or loan shark?
By Celia Hatton
BBC News
Published 10 hours ago
China hands out at least twice as much development money as the US and other major powers, new evidence shows, with most of it coming in the form of risky high-interest loans from Chinese state banks.
The sheer amount of Chinese lending is startling. Not too long ago China received foreign aid, but now the tables have turned.
Over an 18-year period, China has granted or loaned money to 13,427 infrastructure projects worth $843bn across 165 countries, according to the AidData research lab at William & Mary, a university in the US state of Virginia.
Much of this money is linked to Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road strategy. Starting in 2013, it leverages China's expertise in infrastructure projects, and ample foreign currency, to build new global trading routes.
Chart showing how China's international loans have grown to exceed those of the US.
However, critics fear that the high-interest loans funding many Chinese projects are saddling unsuspecting populations in sky-high debt.
And that's news even to Chinese officials themselves. The AidData researchers - who have spent four years tracing all of China's global lending and spending - say that Chinese government ministries are regularly going to them for information on how Chinese money is being used overseas...
China: Big spender or loan shark?
By Celia Hatton
BBC News
Published 10 hours ago
China hands out at least twice as much development money as the US and other major powers, new evidence shows, with most of it coming in the form of risky high-interest loans from Chinese state banks.
The sheer amount of Chinese lending is startling. Not too long ago China received foreign aid, but now the tables have turned.
Over an 18-year period, China has granted or loaned money to 13,427 infrastructure projects worth $843bn across 165 countries, according to the AidData research lab at William & Mary, a university in the US state of Virginia.
Much of this money is linked to Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road strategy. Starting in 2013, it leverages China's expertise in infrastructure projects, and ample foreign currency, to build new global trading routes.
Chart showing how China's international loans have grown to exceed those of the US.
However, critics fear that the high-interest loans funding many Chinese projects are saddling unsuspecting populations in sky-high debt.
And that's news even to Chinese officials themselves. The AidData researchers - who have spent four years tracing all of China's global lending and spending - say that Chinese government ministries are regularly going to them for information on how Chinese money is being used overseas...