Understanding China Belt and Road initiative and debt trap diplomacy in Africa
Ibitomi olawale olalowo
Ibitomiolawale18@gmail.com.

The rise of China in terms of their economy and power throughout the years has caused other nations to view them as a potential threat to become the global hegemony in the future, In 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed that China would create a “Silk Road Economic Belt” across Central Asia and Europe and a “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” running through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, on to the Middle East and Europe — programs meant to revive ancient trade routes and reinforce existing ones. Beijing quickly wove these two visions together and dubbed them the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
While seemingly aimed at regional economic corridors, the BRI is in fact global and motivated by economic and strategic interests. The initiative is generally popular in the developing world, where almost all countries face infrastructure deficiencies and a shortage of resources to overcome them. Through large amounts of loans to participating countries to construct infrastructure in various sectors, the BRI can potentially bring significant benefits to these countries by filling their infrastructure gaps and boosting economic growth, China loan are largely from its important policy bank, the China development bank and the export-import bank of China (EXIM bank). According to EXIM bank the main objective is for China to construct infrastructure in transport, power, water supply and other sector, a further strategic consideration is that China would like to have alternates route to transport natural resources, route that are not controlled by the U.S and its allies.
Debt-trap diplomacy is a concept in international finance used to describe a powerful lending country or institution extending debt to a borrowing nation partially or solely for the lender to increase its political leverage. The term "Debt-trap diplomacy" was originally coin by Brahma Chellancy. The creditor country is said to extend excessive credit to a debtor country with the intention of extracting economic or political concessions after the debtor country becomes unable to meet its debt repayment obligations. The conditions of the loans are often not made public, and often come with conditions that suit the lender. The borrowed money commonly pays contractors and materials sourced from the creditor country. The term has been applied to institutions like the international monetary fund (IMF), but especially to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The primary concept of the Belt and Road Initiative encourages reciprocity, wherein the countries are pressured to become indebted to China given they have granted loans for the infrastructures that would aid in the advancement of the country’s economy. Although China claims that they mean well when it comes to their intentions with the BRI, the countries that they choose to negotiate with are those that come from the developing world. Less developed nations already owe an outstanding debt to the IMF and the World Bank and entering negotiations with China would add to their dilemma of financial deficit (Shah, 2018). How does China expect those countries to shell out funds for the Belt and Road Initiative when such nations are already drowning in debt in the first place? China intentionally dealt with poorer nations because they expect that they would not be able to pay their debts and in return, China takes it as an advantage to expand their territories on the global stage. Sri Lanka is an example of a country that was compelled to hand over control of the Southern port of Hambantota to China last December 2017, which in turn gave China an easy access to India whom they consider as a rival (Mantesso, 2018). Tajikistan also handed a disputed border to China in order to repay their debts, and last April 2018 they also handed over their gold mine as renumeration for the funds that aims to build a powerplant (Furukawa, 2018). Other states such as Dijbouti, Laos, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro and the recent Uganda airport have been used as a form of debt relief wherein they resort to the option of giving off natural resources such as oil to make up for their unpaid debt. And in Dijbouti, China just recently developed its first naval base (Hurley, Morris, & Portelance, 2018). Those cases serve as evidence that China has a hidden agenda to expand their geopolitical realm around the world through the Belt and Road Initiative.
According to voice index 2017 Nigeria borrow $500 million for Abuja light rail, the terms are 20 years with 7 years grace period and a fixed interest rate of 2.5%. Also according debt management office (DMO) as of march 31 2021 Nigeria owned China $3.402 billion, the amount covers 11 loan facilities from china EXIM Bank since 2010.
Nevertheless, countries who engage with China’s Belt and Road initiative should think twice and establish limitations as to how much loans they plan to negotiate with if they do not want to fall into the trap of China that would leave their country indebted, and possibly even controlled by Chinese authorities

[quote author=ijoba22 post=110201473]Understanding China Belt and Road initiative and debt trap diplomacy in Africa
Ibitomi olawale olalowo
Ibitomiolawale18@gmail.com.

The rise of China in terms of their economy and power throughout the years has caused other nations to view them as a potential threat to become the global hegemony in the future, In 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed that China would create a “Silk Road Economic Belt” across Central Asia and Europe and a “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” running through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, on to the Middle East and Europe — programs meant to revive ancient trade routes and reinforce existing ones. Beijing quickly wove these two visions together and dubbed them the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
While seemingly aimed at regional economic corridors, the BRI is in fact global and motivated by economic and strategic interests. The initiative is generally popular in the developing world, where almost all countries face infrastructure deficiencies and a shortage of resources to overcome them. Through large amounts of loans to participating countries to construct infrastructure in various sectors, the BRI can potentially bring significant benefits to these countries by filling their infrastructure gaps and boosting economic growth, China loan are largely from its important policy bank, the China development bank and the export-import bank of China (EXIM bank). According to EXIM bank the main objective is for China to construct infrastructure in transport, power, water supply and other sector, a further strategic consideration is that China would like to have alternates route to transport natural resources, route that are not controlled by the U.S and its allies.
Debt-trap diplomacy is a concept in international finance used to describe a powerful lending country or institution extending debt to a borrowing nation partially or solely for the lender to increase its political leverage. The term "Debt-trap diplomacy" was originally coin by Brahma Chellancy. The creditor country is said to extend excessive credit to a debtor country with the intention of extracting economic or political concessions after the debtor country becomes unable to meet its debt repayment obligations. The conditions of the loans are often not made public, and often come with conditions that suit the lender. The borrowed money commonly pays contractors and materials sourced from the creditor country. The term has been applied to institutions like the international monetary fund (IMF), but especially to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The primary concept of the Belt and Road Initiative encourages reciprocity, wherein the countries are pressured to become indebted to China given they have granted loans for the infrastructures that would aid in the advancement of the country’s economy. Although China claims that they mean well when it comes to their intentions with the BRI, the countries that they choose to negotiate with are those that come from the developing world. Less developed nations already owe an outstanding debt to the IMF and the World Bank and entering negotiations with China would add to their dilemma of financial deficit (Shah, 2018). How does China expect those countries to shell out funds for the Belt and Road Initiative when such nations are already drowning in debt in the first place? China intentionally dealt with poorer nations because they expect that they would not be able to pay their debts and in return, China takes it as an advantage to expand their territories on the global stage. Sri Lanka is an example of a country that was compelled to hand over control of the Southern port of Hambantota to China last December 2017, which in turn gave China an easy access to India whom they consider as a rival (Mantesso, 2018). Tajikistan also handed a disputed border to China in order to repay their debts, and last April 2018 they also handed over their gold mine as renumeration for the funds that aims to build a powerplant (Furukawa, 2018). Other states such as Dijbouti, Laos, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro and the recent Uganda airport have been used as a form of debt relief wherein they resort to the option of giving off natural resources such as oil to make up for their unpaid debt. And in Dijbouti, China just recently developed its first naval base (Hurley, Morris, & Portelance, 2018). Those cases serve as evidence that China has a hidden agenda to expand their geopolitical realm around the world through the Belt and Road Initiative.
According to voice index 2017 Nigeria borrow $500 million for Abuja light rail, the terms are 20 years with 7 years grace period and a fixed interest rate of 2.5%. Also according debt management office (DMO) as of march 31 2021 Nigeria owned China $3.402 billion, the amount covers 11 loan facilities from china EXIM Bank since 2010.
Nevertheless, countries who engage with China’s Belt and Road initiative should think twice and establish limitations as to how much loans they plan to negotiate with if they do not want to fall into the trap of China that would leave their country indebted, and possibly even controlled by Chinese authorities[/

We just like to deceive ourselves with plenty English, there is no country that lend you money without using it as leverage in one way or the other. The western banks and government give money to governments that loot the money and send same money back to their banks. No foreign government have your best interest they are all doing it for themselves. America, IMF, EU and china all have hidden agenda. Moral of the story stop borrowing money and develop yourself