Posted on 05/18/2023 4:37:18 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
A dozen poor countries are facing economic instability and even collapse under the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign loans, much of them from the world’s biggest and most unforgiving government lender, China.
An Associated Press analysis of a dozen countries most indebted to China — including Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia, Laos and Mongolia — found paying back that debt is consuming an ever-greater amount of the tax revenue needed to keep schools open, provide electricity and pay for food and fuel. And it’s draining foreign currency reserves these countries use to pay interest on those loans, leaving some with just months before that money is gone.
Behind the scenes is China’s reluctance to forgive debt and its extreme secrecy about how much money it has loaned and on what terms, which has kept other major lenders from stepping in to help. On top of that is the recent discovery that borrowers have been required to put cash in hidden escrow accounts that push China to the front of the line of creditors to be paid.
Experts predict that unless China begins to soften its stance on its loans to poor countries, there could be a wave of more defaults and political upheavals.
“In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight,” said Harvard economist Ken Rogoff. “ China has moved in and left this geopolitical instability that could have long-lasting effects.”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
China playing global monopoly........brandon playing tidlywinks
Yep.
In the old days, if a weak nation defaulted on a loan originating from a stronger nation, the stronger nation would send in gunboats. And maybe a boatload of Marines, too.
So here’s my question. What would China do if, say, Zambia decided to simply stop paying back a Chinese loan? Gunboats would be out of the question, I guess.
Targeted assassinations, maybe?
The answer is in the default clauses of their loan agreements (China, of course, takes control--directly or indirectly--of such countries' natural resources).
There is truth in this, because the Chinese international lending has mirrored Western nations ( and primarily the US ) lending to nations which cannot or will not repay. Thus, the headline is half the story, the other half being "The World Bank's and the IMF's loans pushing world's poorest countries to brink of collapse."
Here’s what I predict they are doing. They know what impact it will have towards these countries. They will leverage that impact and say well you need to support us in this area this area and this area against the US. As they build a broader circle of countries they will begin pulling off our allies. It’s simply a house of cards that are falling.
Funny (as in not funny) how the communist Chinese are the biggest predatory capitalists.
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Exactly, that is how they gain leverage and control- they learned well from the US. The only difference is China plays for keeps- the US always mucks it up: Biden’s Afghanistan debacle is Exhibit A. How much in loans and loan guarantees did we supply Iraq and Afghanistan? Billions lost AND the countries fell anyway…
Our next example is the Ukrainian debacle.
“So here’s my question. What would China do if, say, Zambia decided to simply stop paying back a Chinese loan? Gunboats would be out of the question, I guess.”
China’s building blue-water navy ships at 5 times the rate of the woke-America, so sending the boys over there to collect (or hand over their country to new masters) is likely to start up in the not-so-distant future.
Ironically, that outcome is likely far better for the masses in those counties as the Chinese are not nearly as corrupt as the potentates they’d be replacing.
>> “In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight,” said Harvard economist Ken Rogoff. “ China has moved in and left this geopolitical instability that could have long-lasting effects.”
And Donald Trump was making progress in bringing China to heel.
Too bad the execrable rat filth stole his 2020 election victory from him. Had that not happened we might not be reading this article today.
China uses local corruption to get the deals made - bribery, no bid contracts, kickbacks - and whether the deal is profitable or not matters less to China than the fact that they get their financial hooks into the country.
A plague to shut down their country.
The Chinese Communist Party said it will control the world within 30 years and the west is handing it to them
“… that debt is consuming an ever-greater amount of the tax revenue needed to keep schools open, provide electricity and pay for food and fuel.”
The local politicians who agreed to these loans don’t care about that. They’ve already gotten their 10% for the Big Guy.
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