Shafaq News/ The Iraqi government announced on Thursday that it had signed 15 contracts with China to build 1,000 schools in Iraq.The PM media office said, in a statement that under the patronage and
A hyperbole perhaps, but a myth no. As evidenced in your links, China would definitely be gaining more short term if they operated the loans like a death trap, but instead have been quite generous. In Sri Lanka, initial reports suggested it would be profitable and even when things went south China didn’t go for asset forfeiture.
However - China is objectively trying to gain power in these developing countries and make these countries rely on China.
Is this a bad thing? In my opinion, there’s nothing inherently bad about it, and it’s objectively better than what the US has done. However, if you’re fearful of Chinese values, I can see you being fearful of their loan program.
China’s debt trap is literally a myth that’s been thoroughly disproven by tons of evidence at this point, I don’t know why people keep parroting it
https://www.eurasiareview.com/01022021-chinese-investment-in-africa-has-had-significant-and-persistently-positive-long-term-effects-despite-controversy/
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3745021
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/02/china-debt-trap-diplomacy/617953/
A hyperbole perhaps, but a myth no. As evidenced in your links, China would definitely be gaining more short term if they operated the loans like a death trap, but instead have been quite generous. In Sri Lanka, initial reports suggested it would be profitable and even when things went south China didn’t go for asset forfeiture.
However - China is objectively trying to gain power in these developing countries and make these countries rely on China.
Is this a bad thing? In my opinion, there’s nothing inherently bad about it, and it’s objectively better than what the US has done. However, if you’re fearful of Chinese values, I can see you being fearful of their loan program.
Every time I read “debt trap” and it isn’t followed or preceded by “IMF” I get a tiny bit more cynical.
Even a cursory glance at US monetary policy reveals most about what you need to know about so called “debt traps”.
Folks in the US write best sellers about it every few years (economic hit man, smedley butler, etc) but it never sticks.
Right, China obviously isn’t doing this out of sheer altruism. My key point is that there is no indication that anything nefarious is happening here.