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I believe that China’s goal was to make these loans, then use
them as leverage against the nations having a hard time paying
them back.

There’s no love lost between the Chinese leadership and
myself.

At the same time, if we look back to the 1960-1980s time frame,
US lending institutions were being condemned for providing
loans to Central and South American nations, as if they forced the
loans on them and were evil when the payments came due.

I provide this information, not to give China cover against
the charges leveled against it, but to add some context to
the situation

If we try to trash China for it’s actions, we need to get
our ducks in a row so this obvious tactical defense by China,
will not stand.

1. We need to find and be able to point out ways our loans
came about differently, and can be defended on that basis.

private institutions versus China’s government banks.

2. At the same time we need to be able to clearly point out
how China’s came about differently and were clearly devious.

private loans are harder than government loans for
governments to use for political pressure. (governments
can still use pressure if only to twist arms to help pay
off private loans.)

If we can’t achieve steps one and two here, we should be
careful how stridently we condemn China, because we might
come off as condemning our own lending institutions actions
decades earlier, and seemingly be seen as unfair to China,
causing our image to suffer in the process.

I don’t think they were devious, but I’m sure a lot of our
enemies would be certain of it, and love to claim that.