China gave huge loans to some countries. Now it’s spending billions to bail them out.

For the past decade, China has lent massive sums to governments across Asia, Africa and Europe, growing its global influence through infrastructure megaprojects and becoming one of the world’s biggest creditors.

Now, a new study says Beijing has also become a major emergency rescue lender to those same countries, many of which are struggling to repay their debts.

Between 2008 and 2021, China spent $240 billion bailing out 22 countries that are “almost exclusively” debtors in Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road infrastructure project, including Argentina, Pakistan, Kenya and Turkey, according to the study published Tuesday by researchers from the World Bank, Harvard Kennedy School, Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the US-based research lab AidData. ...

“We see historical parallels to the era when the US started its rise as a global financial power, especially in the 1930s and after World War 2,” it said. But there are differences, too. For one, China’s loans are far more secretive, with most of its operations and transactions concealed from public view. It reflects the world’s financial system becoming “less institutionalized, less transparent, and more piecemeal,” the study said. ...

Kiel Institute Experts