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.
I think the real intent of this is to continue to put pressure on China to forgive loans, not because they want to help the indebted countries, or because they just want to paint China in a bad light for propaganda purposes, but because occasionally some opportunistic politicians within these countries will use any loan forgiveness from China in order to take out additional loans from IMF. In the event that occurs, this aids the US/EU/IMF/World Bank in that it is seen as a "drain" on China's ability to invest in these countries (limiting their soft power) while simultaneously giving them more leverage over these poor countries to extract rents. I think it ignores that China has been forgiving many of these loans anyway, and China has a genuine desire to help these countries develop and increase their productive capacity. The other benefit that the west worries about, that poorer countries will look to China for leadership and undermine "western" hegemony, has already occurred over the past decade. They are essentially late to the party. And as the fed continues to increase interest rates, the logic of borrowing from IMF will begin to falter to an even greater degree.
I think the real intent of this is to continue to put pressure on China to forgive loans, not because they want to help the indebted countries, or because they just want to paint China in a bad light for propaganda purposes, but because occasionally some opportunistic politicians within these countries will use any loan forgiveness from China in order to take out additional loans from IMF. In the event that occurs, this aids the US/EU/IMF/World Bank in that it is seen as a "drain" on China's ability to invest in these countries (limiting their soft power) while simultaneously giving them more leverage over these poor countries to extract rents. I think it ignores that China has been forgiving many of these loans anyway, and China has a genuine desire to help these countries develop and increase their productive capacity. The other benefit that the west worries about, that poorer countries will look to China for leadership and undermine "western" hegemony, has already occurred over the past decade. They are essentially late to the party. And as the fed continues to increase interest rates, the logic of borrowing from IMF will begin to falter to an even greater degree.