China has significantly expanded its bailout lending as its Belt and Road Initiative blows up following a series of debt write-offs, scandal-ridden projects and allegations of corruption.
A study published on Tuesday shows China granted $104bn worth of rescue loans to developing countries between 2019 and the end of 2021. The figure for these years is almost as large as the country’s bailout lending over the previous two decades.
The study by researchers at AidData, the World Bank, the Harvard Kennedy School and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy is the first known attempt to capture total Chinese rescue lending on a global basis.