My TakeBelt and Road helps global development
- US Vice-President Mike Pence claims China’s programme is saddling developing countries with loans they can’t afford
- Beijing needs to enhance transparency of its lending standards to show the benefits of the BRI
Does China practise stealth imperialism by saddling developing countries with loans they can’t afford with its “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) and compromising their sovereignty?
United States Vice-President Mike Pence made that controversial claim at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Papua New Guinea.
“Know that the US offers a better option,” he told Apec. “We don’t drown our partners in a sea of debt, we don’t coerce, compromise your independence. We do not offer constricting belt or a one-way road.”
Actually, his claim that the US doesn’t “coerce, compromise your independence” is demonstrably false, given the long history of American invasions, CIA-sponsored coups, assassinations, sanctions and subversion around the world. And there is a rich economic literature on the failures of Western aid in the third world. But let’s skip all that, since we are talking China.
In her rebuttal, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “Not a single developing country has been mired in debt difficulties because of its cooperation with China.”