Read this press article on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a Chinese global infrastructure development plan. What are your thoughts, or more saliently, what questions do you have or what would you want to know/learn more about? What responsibilities do you think the international community should have (if any) on such matters?

It seems China is slowly taking over different developing countries around the world through its lending program. Under normal circumstances, the world community (IMF, World Bank) would make loans in developing countries under “normal” loan conditions. But from what the article states, the loans that Chinese Banks are making are at four times the interest rate that have to be repaid in one-third the time. This cannot be good for developing countries and will eventually lead to a default situation in which the defaulting country will likely lose whatever they built with the money they lent to China. In this way, it seems China will eventually “own” infrastructure (bridges, roads, airports) or other projects within a developing country, making that country dependent on China for many years in the future.

Some questions I have include: (i) What exactly are the terms for the loans China has given to developing countries? (ii) How many developing countries have already defaulted or are about to default on their loans to Chinese banks? (iii) How many loans involve commodities (oil, gas, minerals) in some way and is China using those commodities for its own benefit? (iv) When will China stop providing these types of loans to developing countries? (v) Is the intention of China to ever get repaid the loan amount or is the real intention to own part of the borrower’s country or commodities of the borrower’s country? (vi) For how many loans has China offered loan forgiveness so far?