It points out that a large proportion of Sri Lanka's overall debt was owed to non-Chinese lenders, and that there's no evidence China has taken advantage of its position to gain strategic military advantage from the port. In an interview with the BBC, Richard Moore, the head of Britain's foreign intelligence agency MI6, said China uses what he called "debt traps" to gain leverage over other countries. China shares a contiguous border of 292 miles with Bhutan and territorial disputes have been a source of potential conflict. China has the impoverished workers willing to risk their lives for a few extra bucks in Africa. BUT it was visible to any intelligent human being since at least 15 years ago. "And much of China's development financing is fundamentally a commercial operation.". But prominent voices in China . This is the widest gap observed among all 19 countries. Few tend to describe Chinas influence as staying the same (median of 20%) or getting weaker (12%). In 2015, Chinese state media claimed that an attack on one of its remote checkpoints in Inner Mongolia was due to a provincial border dispute. All surveys were conducted over the phone with adults in Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. Contact: info@gatestoneinstitute.org Yet another important element to Chinas presence in global finance is the growing network of swap lines by the Peoples Bank of China (PBoC). The China CCP prefers to corrupt the political establishment of the countries that it targets for increased influence, which it has been highly successful at through its' Belt & Road Program initiatives. What's important is "to be seen as a developing, modern, and functional country.". The new imperialism. The rest might come later, if ever. In 2000, trade between China and Africa had been at a mere $11 billion. Concerns that China could order a strike on the self-ruling island are so high that the US has passed a $100m support contract aimed at boosting the islands missile defence systems to maintain political stability and military balance in the region, Al Jazeera said. A market in Chennai, India, on Wednesday. (Ideology was not asked in Japan, Malaysia or Singapore.). Despite a booming technology sector, the sheer size of India's population means it has been struggling to create enough jobs to keep up with demand. Africa is important to China for several reasons. As we mentioned in our previous post, the US has offered a latest estimate of Russian troops killed in Ukraine. In June 2021, in an extremely belated attempt to counter China's Belt and Road Initiative, the Biden administration together with the G7 launched a new global infrastructure initiative, the Build Back Better World. Very good article. In another South China Sea dispute, China and Vietnam have long faced maritime territorial disputes over the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands, said the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a US-based think tank. The Chinese Communist Party's Secret Projects in the US: What Is Going On? Over 418,000 People Newly . Only 2.2% of workers between the ages of 15 and 59 have received formal vocational training, according to government figures. AI chatbots 'may soon be more intelligent than us', Russia troop deaths hit 20,000 in five months - US, BP profits of 4bn in three months spark criticism, The 17 most eye-catching looks at the Met Gala, The burden of being cricket legend Tendulkar's son, 'My wife and six children joined Kenya starvation cult', On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry. These Africans spoke German, knew Germany, but rather than thanking Germans for being a different culture, they still blamed the Germans. Heres What They Think About China, In Their Own Words, Americans views of Asia-Pacific nations have not changed since 2018 with the exception of China, In their own words: What Americans think about China, What the data says about Americans views of climate change, Podcasts as a Source of News and Information, AI in Hiring and Evaluating Workers: What Americans Think, Americans confident in Zelenskyy, but have limited familiarity with some other world leaders, How Public Polling Has Changed in the 21st Century. Speaking to the broadcaster in 2019, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said that he did not think an all-out confrontation involving Singapore will take place, explaining: All the parties involved recognize that the price is too high and the issues in the South China Sea do not warrant an actual physical confrontation.. This chart shows global debt levels cause by direct loans from China (as percentage of GDP) in 2021. Africa's challenges, opportunities, and security interests are inseparable from our own. Our competitors clearly see Africa's rich potential. What matters to China is consumer and investor confidence, "so it is not hard to see why Chinese officials are pushing back on the argument that a population decline spells economic decline," said Dimitar Gueorguiev, an associate professor who teaches Chinese politics at Syracuse University. "America cannot ignore Africa. internet, telecommunications and consumer electronics Feel free to contact us anytime using our contact form or visit our FAQ page. ", Retired teacher Liu Quan, 57, said he doesn't care about the population news at all. As of 2021, China had officially lent around $180 billion to low and middle-income countries, up from just around $40 billion in 2010. China is lending differently: instead of financing projects by granting or loaning money from one state to another, almost all the money it's handing out is in the form of state banking loans. This problem is aggravated by the fact that many Chinese official loans have collateral clauses, so that China may be treated preferentially in case of repayment problems. China once tried to check its population growth with the now defunct one-child policy. A survey conducted by the U.N. in conjunction with this week's report found that many Indians listed economic issues as their top concern when thinking about population change, followed by worries about the environment, health and human rights. That was Beijing's indignant reaction after news that India, its neighbor and fierce rival, will soon overtake China as the world's most populous country. "It really seems like kind of a bread-and-butter strategy they use to signal to their borrower that 'We're the big boss around here'," Brad Parks explains. "Population does not equal national power," said Zhang Han, 29, a business student from the eastern province of Shandong. Finally, in 2017, Sri Lanka agreed to give state-owned China Merchants a controlling 70% stake in the port on a 99-year lease in return for further Chinese investment. The required repayment period for a Chinese loan is also generally shorter - less than 10 years, compared to around 28 years for other lenders' concessional loans to developing countries. Video, On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry. Both will have almost 1.43 billion people, according to the United Nations World Population Dashboard well more than a third of the planet's 8 billion-plus people between them. One example often cited by critics of China is Sri Lanka, which years ago embarked on a massive port project in Hambantota with Chinese investment. Longer submissions are unlikely to be published. Recently it engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity with African countries. According to a Biden administration fact-sheet about the initiative: "President Biden and G7 partners agreed to launch the bold new global infrastructure initiative Build Back Better World (B3W), a values-driven, high-standard, and transparent infrastructure partnership led by major democracies to help narrow the $40+ trillion infrastructure need in the developing world "B3W will be global in scope, from Latin America and the Caribbean to Africa to the Indo-Pacific. please include a backlink to the respective infographic URL. It's not the fault of today's corrupt African leaders or the African culture, but of things that happened before any of us were born. Despite efforts to resolve the issue through diplomacy, breakthroughs have proven elusive. However, China is North Koreas only remaining ally and never before has North Korea been such a threat. In the absence of a serious coordinated international effort, China will go on to fill that infrastructure gap, as it continues to consolidate its influence in Africa while the US lags behind. PM Modi took a dig at China by saying that the era of expansionism is over. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute. China tends to lend at higher rates of interest than western governments. CHINA is "colonising" smaller countries by lending them massive amounts of money they can never repay, it's been claimed. How does China's lending compare with others? At the time, experts said that if the dispute goes unresolved it could seriously damage relations between communities living along the two nations shared border. "If a borrower fails to repay its debt," says Brad Parks, Executive Director of AidData, "China can simply debit funds from [this] account without having to collect on bad debt through a judicial process.". The AidData researchers - who have spent four years tracing all of China's global lending and spending - say that Chinese government ministries are regularly going to them for information on how Chinese money is being used overseas. The sheer amount of Chinese lending is startling. The Week is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Increasingly, Chinese loans appear to require borrowers to promise hard cash earned from selling natural resources. by John Richardson The details are given below: . Video, On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry, China has granted or loaned money to 13,427 infrastructure projects, China debt dogs Maldives' 'bridge to prosperity', 'We don't like our land being given away to China', Serena Williams announces pregnancy at Met Gala, Shooting suspect was deported four times - US media, Met Gala 2023: Stars celebrate Karl Lagerfeld, New record as 4.56m Indians take flights in a day, Japan to ban upskirting in stronger sex crime laws, Palestinian hunger striker dies in Israel prison. Singapore has also clashed with China over its claims in the South China Sea. Both countries face their own challenges. In South Korea, 89% have a favorable view of the U.S., 70 percentage points more than the 19% who say the same of China. please visit our agency website, Your contact to the Infographics Newsroom, Find your information in our database containing over 20,000 reports. This control threatens the ability of U.S. companies to access key supplies.". If a debt payment is missed, the Chinese lender can immediately withdraw the cash waiting in the account. Both claim that it falls within their exclusive economic zones. Gatestone also reserves the right to edit comments for length, clarity and grammar, or to conform to these guidelines. Read the "Chung Kuo: Middle Earth" series by David Wingrove. "Beijing has long viewed African countries as occupying a central position in its efforts to increase China's global influence and revise the international order," the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission wrote in its 2020 Report to Congress. Second, the private sector will misprice debt contracts, such as sovereign bonds, if it fails to grasp the true scope of debts that a government owes. Singapore: Even though they entered a . Since 2011, two dozen developing countries have restructured their debt to China. About 40 out of Africa's 54 countries participate in China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the global infrastructure and economic development project that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched in 2013. The talks came only two months after Wang Yi visited Eritrea, Kenya and Comoros. They don't need or want preachers to tell them how to behave, to explain democracy to them. This gap in perceptions is largest in Australia, where more than three times as many say Chinas influence is growing than say the same about American influence (73% vs. 19%). Need infographics, animated videos, presentations, data research or social media charts? Weve also documented a recent surge in the number of credit events on Chinese loans, which have not appeared in the reports of international credit rating agencies. China's economic and diplomatic engagements allow it to buttress autocracies and change international norms in a patient effort to claim their second continent.". Along with Taiwan, this is perhaps the most well-known of Chinas territorial disputes. . views, likes, loves, comments, shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Prime Television Zambia: NEWS OF THE WEEK || 30 APRIL 2023 non-commercial websites. Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World, Fast facts about views of China ahead of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Large Majorities Say China Does Not Respect the Personal Freedoms of Its People, Most Americans Have Cold Views of China. "America cannot ignore Africa. There are other parts of the world where Chinese lending has also proved controversial, with contracts whose terms could give China leverage over important assets. Creative writing classes for kids and teens Young Writers' Hangout on May 11, 18, 25 (1:30 pm-3pm; stand-alone sessions) at . In September, Radio Free Asia reported that residents of Myanmars northern Shan state had destroyed a fence built by Chinese authorities, claiming it encroaches on their countrys territory. Here are the questions used in this report, along with their responses, as well as its methodology. They're very much protecting their interests.". The Laos railway is far from the only risky project that Chinese state banks have funded - and yet, AidData says China remains the financier of first resort for many low and middle income countries. Just 24 percent of the countries' bilateral debt comes from the rest of the world that year. What they are doing is really doing the CCP's PR towards African as well as western publics. and displayed without charge by all commercial and Trade between China and Africa has grown from $10 billion in 2000 to $190 billion by 2017. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Bhutan has not responded to reports of the Chinese settlements along its border. "America cannot ignore Africa. The Hong Kong authorities have arrested more than 110 people in national security investigations over the past year, charging 64, including most of the city's best-known pro-democracy activists . John Richardson is a researcher based in the United States. What is China going to do, take these corrupt debtor countries to the World Court in an effort to collect? It will be very near impossible for the US or others to catch up on that, especially with the planned B3W initiative, because that initiative is not focused on much-needed tangible investments. This change does not substantively affect the findings in this analysis. Why Don't Americans Trust the Biden Administration on Iran? Copyright 2023 Gatestone Institute. Everyone who took part in the U.S. survey is a member of the Centers American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. Laos. As has been shown in the Ukraine, Russia cannot successfully project military power outside its own borders. IMF lending is transparent, and it is usually conditioned on a plan to improve national policies. Already in May 2021, Townsend had warned that China was overtaking America in Africa: "The Chinese are outmaneuvering the U.S. in select countries in Africa. One would think that by now the globalist fools of the World Economic Forum (not to mention our own government) would have realized the absolute folly of engaging with such a totalitarian regime devoted to world dominance. Until 1986, the total territory (or under control) of the PRC was 10.45 million km 2, including: [1] Continental mainland: ~9.60 million km 2. Africans will continue to move westward and northward by the millions. Almost all of this lending is official, coming from the government and state-controlled entities. A median of 66% across 19 countries say Chinas influence on the world stage is getting stronger, while just 32% say the same about the U.S. China lent nearly . Analysis of the port project by UK-based think tank Chatham House has questioned whether the "debt trap" narrative strictly applies, given that the deal was driven by local political motivations, and that China never took formal ownership of the port. Those findings suggest that "population anxieties have seeped into large portions of the general public," even though the numbers should be seen as a sign of developmen, rather than a cause for anxiety, Andrea Wojnar, the United Nations Population Funds representative for India, said in a statement. Fears that China could launch an invasion of Taiwan have dominated headlines for months, fuelled by a series of incendiary interventions by senior officials in Beijing. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. CORRECTION (Aug. 29, 2022): Due to an editing error, a previous version of the text mischaracterized favorable views of the U.S. in South Korea. On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry. After pursuing economic liberalization in the 1970s, its economy has mushroomed to become the second largest in the world behind the U.S., with a gross domestic product almost seven times that of India, which is placed fifth. Reports show that a substantial number of African countries have taken Chinese loans since 2000, totaling a whopping $124 billion by 2016 . Summary. Video, 00:02:36, On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry. Taken together, young people in a few countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom are both more positive toward China and less positive toward the U.S. than older adults. South Korea is the only place surveyed where younger people have more negative views of China and more positive views of the U.S. than their older counterparts. Read about our approach to external linking. And by comparison, the US is spending about $37bn in any given year to support global development activities," says Brad Parks. China is alarmed by the Quad. Ramaphosa affirmed that he supports China's policies on Taiwan, Tibet, and other "major issues". As of 2018, the PBoC has signed swap agreements with more than 40 central banks (ranging from Argentina to Ukraine), providing the right to exchange more than U.S. $550 billion of their own currencies for Chinese currency (the renminbi or RMB). Islands and reefs: ~75,400 km 2. Chinese Communist Party officials have unveiled an "action plan for cooperation" with Latin American countries that amounts to a "comprehensive" plan to . Because the West is NOT offering what these countries really need (same happens with Latin America btw). This raises serious questions about the ability of this titan one on which the global economy has come to rely to maintain, let alone enhance, its economic status. The Covid-19 pandemic has complicated the already difficult repayment of Chinese loans even more. A powerhouse in global trade, China has more shipping ports at. (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax Well over 100 countries worldwide had instituted either a full or partial lockdown by the end of March 2020 . This has turned China into the worlds largest official creditor surpassing traditional, official lenders such as the World Bank, the IMF, or all OECD creditor governments combined. The Peoples Republic has always been an active international lender. Our data show that almost all of Chinas lending is undertaken by the government and various state-owned entities, such as public enterprises and public banks. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Such hype lacks a basic understanding of the law of population development, it said. Directly accessible data for 170 industries from 50 countries and over 1 million facts: Get quick analyses with our professional research service. China is now Africa's largest trade partner. 2023 Gatestone Institute. Chinese loans have higher interest rates than those from international institutions like the International Monetary Fund or The World Bank or bilateral loans from Paris Club countries, and also have shorter repayment windows. From 2020 to 2021, trade between Africa and China reportedly increased by 35% -- from $187 billion to $254 billion. Just this week China was accused of encroaching on Nepals territory along the two countries shared border. "They say: 'We can't get our hands on this data internally'.". AidData says China remains the financier of first resort for many low and middle income countries. Note: Here are the questions used in this report, along with their responses, as well as its methodology. Xi must have, and took them very seriously. This inaction means that in the emerging US-China rivalry in Africa, China is far ahead. Video, 00:02:36What is China's One Belt, One Road? Much of the debt owed to China relates to large infrastructure projects like roads, railways and ports, and also to the mining and energy industry, under President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative. Read our research on: Congress | Economy | Trust in Media. For generations I have heard in America that all of the problems in Africa are because of (white) colonialism. In Hungary, which was last surveyed in 2019, views of the U.S. are down while opinion of China has not shifted. Despite that, there's little doubt China's economic involvement in Sri Lanka has grown in the past decade, and concerns persist that this could be used to advance its political ambitions in the region. Our leadership ignored this as if special raw materials scarce and extremely valuable necessary for next generation tech was not a national security issue thanks to the Clintons and Obama. Yes, Statista allows the easy integration of many infographics on other websites. In 19 countries surveyed by Pew Research Center this spring, people see the United States and President Joe Biden more favorably than China and its president, Xi Jinping. China has chosen not to join this grouping, but using available World Bank data, the rapid growth in China's reported lending compared to others can be clearly observed. on two sectors: "Media and Technology", updated Djibouti, Laos, Zambia and Kyrgyzstan have debts to China equivalent to at least 20% of their annual GDP. Its loans to lower and middle-income countries have tripled over the past decade, reaching $170bn . "I'm sceptical that Western initiatives will make much of a dent in the Chinese programme," says David Dollar, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the former US Treasury representative in China. The two countries are sparring over the Scarborough Reef and the Spratly Islands. Whether such a process will be available for Chinese debt is unclear. However, the plan might simply have come along too late. The authors . In many countries, younger people tend to feel more positively about China than older people. But officials in Beijing have in fact long been concerned that their nations porous borders with Myanmar are facilitating drug production and trafficking in all manner of contraband, as well as providing an outlet for illicit capital flows. While Biden vegetates Xi is trick or treating across Africa.It's the American version of "while Rome burned".It will be interesting to see how Red China deals with Islamists. And this is all before the railway has even begun operations. The U.S. is also seen substantially more positively than China in Japan (+58 points) and Australia (+40 points). The pattern differs in Poland, also last surveyed in 2019, where the U.S. is now seen more favorably than three years ago (+12 points) while China is seen less favorably (-19 points). To China, being the most populous nation "doesnt count for anything" in and of itself, he told NBC News in an email. While views of the U.S. and China have remained mostly stable over the past year, attitudes in some countries have shifted. Why does this matter? The initiative, however, comes across as far too little, too late. Russia and China both seek to convert soft and hard power investments into political influence, strategic access, and military advantage. under the Creative Commons License CC BY-ND 3.0, may be used The country is accused of leveraging massive loans it holds over. "The loan that China's Eximbank made to cover part of the equity really showcases the urgency of the Chinese state to push through the project," explains Wanjing Kelly Chen, research assistant professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In June 2020, soldiers clashed in hand-to-hand combat as a border dispute threatened the uneasy truce between the worlds most populous nations. The Statista "Chart of the Day", made available Note: Gatestone appreciates your comments. Vietnam maintains its territorial claim over regions of the South China Sea and the Macclesfield Bank, Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands. They're not welcome in China though. has questioned whether the "debt trap" narrative strictly applies, It argues that such confidentiality is common practice, Serena Williams announces pregnancy at Met Gala, Shooting suspect was deported four times - US media, Met Gala 2023: Stars celebrate Karl Lagerfeld, New record as 4.56m Indians take flights in a day, Japan to ban upskirting in stronger sex crime laws, Palestinian hunger striker dies in Israel prison. All rights reserved. That lending cycle ended badly once commodity prices and economic growth slumped, and dozens of developing countries went into default during the bust that followed. Simply copy the HTML code that is shown for the relevant statistic in order to integrate it. It is beyond comprehension how come the West has remained indifferent and overlooked the sinister colonization model China is building in Africa. How many World Bank loans or IMF loans have African nations defaulted on or better yet how many of these loans have been fully paid back without being refinanced by more WB or IMF loans? For example, if a nation indebted to China turns to the IMF, officials should be aware that any funds the IMF disburses may be used to pay another official creditor, China, rather than be used to blunt market strains. The Times of India newspaper described this as "a ticking social bomb" in an editorial reacting to the population news. Much of this money is linked to Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road strategy. If Chinas role in international finance continues in the shadows, global risk assessments and country surveillance work will remain dangerously incomplete. Since 2011, trade between the US and Africa has been in decline. The World Bank says that since May 2020, a total of more than $10.3bn has been delivered in debt relief by G20 countries under this scheme. Alexander Smith is a senior reporter forNBC News Digital based in London. The BBC reported at the time that, according to the Global Times, there had been several clashes between Inner Mongolians and residents of Gansu province in the area. As we have seen consistently in Pew Research Center surveys, people who place themselves on the right of the ideological spectrum tend to view the U.S. more favorably than those on the left. The resulting database provided the first comprehensive picture of Chinas overseas debt stocks and flows worldwide, including nearly 2,000 loans and nearly 3,000 grants from the founding of the Peoples Republic in 1949 to 2017. China's growing role in international finance has remained obscure, mostly due to a lack of data and transparency. "We just want peace" between the quarreling neighbors, he said. The hostility, which triggered an angry protest from Manila, was the latest flare-up in the South China Sea, with China claiming virtually the entire waterway and transforming seven disputed shoals into missile-protected island bases.
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