No ‘smear’ tactics, more say for China in global debt-relief efforts, urges former PBOC head Zhou Xiaochuan
- Comments come after US said China needs to do more, and Zhou again lashes out at Washington’s attempts to ‘smear’ China
- He says West’s debt-trap claims, together with the pandemic impact, have affected Chinese investment in countries under the Belt and Road Initiative
One of China’s most prominent advocates for debt-relief efforts in developing nations wants the country to play a greater role in such endeavours, and he contends that China should have a greater say in relevant multilateral arrangements.
The comments on Wednesday by Zhou Xiaochuan, former governor of the People’s Bank of China, came as poorer countries are still struggling to recover from the effects of the three-year pandemic while dealing with fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war and aggressive rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.
“We respect multilateralism and support developing countries. The difficulties caused by the pandemic need to be resolved. At the same time, China should take part in some of the restructuring,” he said during a lecture at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Western countries have accused Beijing of aggressively seeking out energy and raw materials without regard for the environmental impact, of engaging in debt-trap diplomacy, and of being reluctant to participate in global debt-relief efforts.
