Debt trap diplomacy

Why Belt and Road debt-trap fears are exaggerated

China's Belt and Road Initiative exacerbates debt risks for poorer nations with weak governance but it is unfair to paint China as a loan shark, US think tanks say.
Railway in Kazakhstan, one of the countries covered by China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Railway in Kazakhstan, one of the countries covered by China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Borrowing money under the aegis of China's Belt and Road Initiative carries some big risks for poorer countries but it is by no means the inevitable debt trap that some critics allege.

And it's not just Beijing saying it, which is partly why enthusiasm for the grand project isn't waning.

“The current narrative is that there’s a backlash within parts of the region. Actually, the initiative has been quite resilient,” Rush Doshi, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in a report published by the US think tank last month. 

Belt and Road is China’s vast blueprint to connect more effectively...

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