China is calling in loans to dozens of countries from Pakistan to Kenya

I suggest you look up the IMF's track record. India had to use the IMF in the early 90s due to decades of "socialism."

We are long past that point, forex reserves were close to USD 600 billion last time I checked.

So there's no question of "cope."

" This is just a rehash of the awful AP article from yesterday: https://apnews.com/article/china-debt-banking-loans-financia...

It amounts to what is essentially misinformation.

> Countries in AP’s analysis had as much as 50% of their foreign loans from China and most were devoting more than a third of government revenue to paying off foreign debt. Two of them, Zambia and Sri Lanka, have already gone into default, unable to make even interest payments on loans financing the construction of ports, mines and power plants.

Yes. BILATERAL LOANS. i.e. a fraction of a country's total debt. China amounts to 65% of Nigeria's bilateral loans, but The VAST majority of debt in these countries is owed to private creditors (in London and New York) via eurobond loans. Those loans have far higher interest rates, often require massive principle repayments and are generally impossible to renegotiate or suspend in times of debt distress. Eurobonds are what caused Sri lanka to default, what caused Zambia to default and what are causing everyone else to default.

During covid China suspended more debt repayments than the rest of the intl community combined, despite having only 30% of the total lending. Doesn't sound very evil to me.

There are plenty of real problems with China's historic lending, but jesus the lies need to stop. "

To add to that, only ~10% of Sri Lanka's outstanding loans are owed to Beijing, in any form, and even if you add up every company with any PRC ties whatsoever and the AIIB, it's only ~20% of outstanding loans. Considering how close Sri Lanka ties are, probably every other debtor country would have a lower ratio.

It's unfortunate that the Associated Press and Fortune have reduced their credibility to the level of Hollywood accountants, but I guess that's how the cookie crumbled when there's so much geopolitical pressure to fudge reporting.

The problem for China is that countries won't be cooperating willingly. The moment shooting war starts between China and US, the countries will nationalize anything sold to China, default on the loans, and call the US asking them to take over the bases.

One problem China has is that they think the US is forcing other countries to be allies and enforce their hegemony. This leads them to think that they need to act same way and coerce other countries into their sphere. US is more subtle, using "soft power", mutual interest, and limited coercion. The US also doesn't care about most of the world beyond companies having access.