this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
174 points (96.8% liked)

World News

38563 readers
2302 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Developing countries owe Chinese lenders at least $1.1 trillion, according to a new data analysis published Monday, which says more than half of the thousands of loans China has doled out over two decades are due as many borrowers struggle financially.

Overdue loan repayments to Chinese lenders are soaring, according to AidData, a university research lab at William & Mary in Virginia, which found that nearly 80% of China’s lending portfolio in the developing world is currently supporting countries in financial distress.

For years, Beijing marshalled its finances toward funding infrastructure across poorer countries – including under an effort that Chinese leader Xi Jinping branded as his flagship “Belt and Road Initiative,” which launched a decade ago this fall.

That funding flowed liberally into roads, airports, railways and power plants from Latin America to Southeast Asia and helped power economic growth among borrowing countries. Along the way, it drew many governments closer to Beijing and made China the world’s largest creditor, while also sparking accusations of irresponsible lending.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 44 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $1.1 trillion, that's the bank's problem.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Which they are more then free to deploy.... at a cost.

Sadly any country is going to have to weigh the cost of war, the cost of losing that war, the cost of losing personnel/equipment in that war, and the cost of basically ruining the physical assets they are trying to collect due to sabotage, collateral damage, misfires, and "misappropriation."

Sadly by the time they are done, the market value of those assets would be purely theoretical at best, if any value at all.

So it doesn't make sense for a country like China to invade the greater portion of Africa. But they might try sting operations, or devaluing of African assets within their own market to put pressure.

The risks being that the "belt and road" initiative might fall through too whatever the choice.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

China don't need to deploy their army. They can simply threaten to cease all trades. No countries can afford to stop trading with China since practically everything are manufactured there. Even Taiwan, China's mortal enemy, still trades with China.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago

You make a good point. Everyone likes to think they can just switch production to India or Vietnam but they have no idea how large the manufacturing industry is there. No other country could replace it or match their speed. All those quality items you like have components or are entirely made in China.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

doesn't make sense for a country like China to invade the greater portion of Africa

No, so they just appropriate the places they cared about with their investments from the start, such as rare earth mines.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

You can fight and win wars without ever setting foot in another country.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Except this bank has an army

And likes to claim territory that isn't theirs.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

More like if you owe the mob $100 and you fail to pay, you might get a broken finger. If you owe the mob $1 million and fail to pay they will gift you cement boots.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Is this actually true. The more someone owes the less likely you are to outright kill them cause that's a 100% loss on your investment. Brutal torture or kidnappings seem more likely to me. After that organ harvesting or forfitting assets.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

It's more about sending a message to everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Outside of the movies? Not really. Not actually sure of the change in death rates in owing a small amount vs a large amount but loan sharks breaking limbs borrowers' or offing was actually pretty rare from what Steven Dubner or Leavitt found (can't remember which). Although my great uncle Michael might disagree with that finding. But nobody has seen him since he did not pay back that large loan he took from the mob in the 70s.

That said, there are other ways to put pressure on a borrower that do not permanently decrease productivity. A borrower has a bigger incentive to pay things back if a loved one's life is on the line. That might explain great uncle Michael's disappearance since he was pretty much disowned by the rest of the family.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Those are expensive cement boots for both the mob and that poor dude.