Snap! 21st Century is running wild, Smart-phones and Cheap Electronics are the coolest trends and the Asian nation of China happens to be the latest trendsetter. In a World tired of Uncle Sam’s lame tricks, China appears to be the newest flag-bearer of the glorious scheme of Industrialization. The Communist Party of China, the party that transformed China from a backward agrarian society to an Industrial Powerhouse holds control over 18.54 % of World’s Population and even more bombs is determined to make China the greatest of us all. And when it comes to their determination there lies no margin for error and mishappening. But wait! How are they doing it?
In order to acquire global supremacy, the brain trusts in Beijing devised this wonderful trap where they lure cash strap economies of the world, invest and finance infrastructure in such countries and then generate hefty profits. Thus the aspirations of this Communist giant depends on an ancient communist party secret: Money.
In just last few years, the country has lent enormous sums of money to cash-strapped nations and then exploit such nations to achieve what it wants. All this is based on the ambitious trillion dollar plan which aims to create infrastructure all around the globe and then utilize it to generate more and more wealth through providing employment (mainly for Chinese workers), transport goods ( mainly from China) and extend influence mainly for the Chinese Communist Party. No wonder they named it, ‘One Belt, One Road’.
Although there is nothing new in nations helping their neighbors by extending loans, the Chinese Communist Party took things a little too far. The U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson highlighted that the ‘Chinese approach of Financing Infrastructure encourages dependency on opaque contracts, predatory loan prices, and corrupt deals that mire nation in debts and uncut their sovereignty denying them their long-term, self-sustainable growth.’ Below are some countries gripped under Dragon’s Debt Trap.
Srilanka:- In 2010, Srilanka got a whopping 1.5 billion dollar loan from Beijing in order to construct the port of Hambantota which has almost no shipping traffic. Upon the realization of the harshness of the loan and failure to pay the debt, the island nation opted to sign away the complete port with a 99-year lease to China Merchant Stock Holdings which got 70% controlling stake of the Hambantota Port. The 99-year lease is just perfect to meet Chinese military ambitions due to its proximity to India.
Speaking of Proximity to India, the next country that comes to my mind is none other than Pakistan. With a total lending window of about 40 billion dollars, The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is under construction and Pakistan already owes Beijing over 6 billion dollars. Buried under debt, Pakistan submitted the control over the port of Gwadar to China through a 40-year lease and now the Chinese army is constructing an Air-force and naval base near the port of Gwadar for Chinese soldiers. According to CGD Policy Paper for March 2018, ‘Pakistan not only owes a ton of money to China but it’s paying high-interest rates on those loans as well- with some loan as high as 5%‘.
Djibouti:- The African nation of Djibouti holds the fame of being China’s first overseas military base. Also, the base is just a few miles away from an American Military Base. The Washington Post recently asked, ‘Can the Trump Administration stop China from taking over a key African Port?’ The government of Djibouti is also in talks with a Chinese state controlled firm to run the Doraleh Container Terminal which happens to be the access point to Japanese, Italian, American and French bases in Djibouti. Meanwhile, the officials and many other think tanks have warned that Djibouti is growing closer and getting increasingly indebted to the Chinese government.
The Chinese debt traps are nothing but a modernised model of Imperialism aimed at establishing Chinese Supremacy all over the World.
