Tag: Sri Lanka

China Is Lending Billions to Countries in Financial Trouble

Media Library

After lending $1.3 trillion to developing countries, mainly for big-ticket infrastructure projects, China has shifted its focus to bailing out many of those same countries from piles of debt. The initial loans were mostly part of the Belt and Road Initiative, which Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, started in 2013 to build stronger transportation, communications and political links in more than 150 countries. But now the two main Chinese state banks that provided most of the infrastructure loans have reduced their new lending. Rescue loans climbed to 58 percent of…

‘It’s not like chicken farming’: why manta rays are chopped up in Sri Lanka

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Every morning, starting at 3am, Lakshan hacks up manta rays. A wholesale buyer who plies his trade at Sri Lanka’s largest fish market, in the city of Negombo, just north of Colombo, he jostles with fishers offloading their catches. His business is primarily to find fresh tuna but he also buys 700kg (1,540lb) of manta and devil rays every day. He doesn’t want the ray’s meat, which most Sri Lankans don’t eat. Instead, he’s after the gill plates: cartilage that helps manta and devil rays filter out microorganisms in ocean…

China’s Lending Practices Are Not a Good Look

Chin@Strategy

President Xi Jinping of China wants his nation to be seen as a responsible world leader, to “contribute China’s wisdom and solutions to the cause of peace and development for all humanity,” as he said on New Year’s Eve. But China is taking a narrow view of its self-interest in negotiations over debt relief to poor countries such as Sri Lanka and Zambia. This is undoubtedly a factor in China’s diminished standing in the world. YouGov Cambridge Globalism polls found that China’s image was worse in 2022 than in 2019…

Pressure Mounts on China to Offer Debt Relief to Poor Countries Facing Default

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — China, under growing pressure from top international policymakers, appeared to indicate this week that it is ready to make concessions that would unlock a global effort to restructure hundreds of billions of dollars of debt owed by poor countries. China has lent more than $500 billion to developing countries through its lending program, making it one of the world’s largest creditors. Many of those countries, including several in Africa, have struggled economically in the wake of the pandemic and face the possibility of defaulting on their debt payments.…

Pressure Mounts on China to Offer Debt Relief to Poor Countries Facing Default

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — China, under growing pressure from top international policymakers, appeared to indicate this week that it is ready to make concessions that would unlock a global effort to restructure hundreds of billions of dollars of debt owed by poor countries. China has lent more than $500 billion to developing countries through its lending program, making it one of the world’s largest creditors. Many of those countries, including several in Africa, have struggled economically in the wake of the pandemic and face the possibility of defaulting on their debt payments.…

Sri Lanka, Its Economy Reeling, Is Approved for $3 Billion Rescue Loan

Chin@Strategy

The executive board of the International Monetary Fund approved a loan worth $3 billion to help Sri Lanka through the financial crisis that has had the nation in a rolling economic and political crisis for more than a year. The I.M.F. had agreed in principle to extend the funds last September — subject to Sri Lanka’s meeting a series of conditions that included tightening its finances and renegotiating the terms of repaying debt it owes to the biggest economies in Asia. Even before the announcement was made, late on Monday…

In Global Slowdown, China Holds Sway Over Countries’ Fates

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING — When Suriname couldn’t make its debt payments, a Chinese state bank seized the money from one of the South American country’s accounts. As Pakistan has struggled to cope with a devastating flood that has inundated a third of the country, its loan repayments to China have been rising fast. When Kenyans and Angolans went to the polls in presidential elections in August, the countries’ Chinese loans, and how to repay them, were a hot-button political issue. Across much of the developing world, China finds itself in an uncomfortable…

Even as Iranians Rise Up, Protests Worldwide Are Failing at Record Rates

Chin@Strategy

Iran’s widening protests, though challenging that country’s government forcefully and in rising numbers, may also embody a global trend that does not augur well for the Iranian movement. Mass protests like the ones in Iran, whose participants have cited economic hardships, political repression and corruption, were once considered such a powerful force that even the strongest autocrat might not survive their rise. But their odds of success have plummeted worldwide, research finds. Such movements are today more likely to fail than they were at any other point since at least…

Chinese navy vessel arrives at Sri Lanka port to security concerns from India

Chin@Strategy

A Chinese navy vessel has arrived at a southern Sri Lankan port that Beijing leases from the government, prompting renewed security fears from India. On Tuesday morning, the Yuan Wang 5 sailed into the Hambantota port, which was built by Beijing, and was welcomed by senior Sri Lankan and Chinese officials in a traditional ceremony that involved red carpet and a massive banner that read: “Hello Sri Lanka, Long Live Sri Lanka-China Friendship.” Although the ship will only stay for a few days, the development has already sounded the alarm…

Chinese Military Ship Docks in Sri Lanka Despite India’s Concerns

Chin@Strategy

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — After weeks of uncertainty, a Chinese surveillance vessel docked at a port in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, raising tensions between neighboring India and China as Indian leaders grow increasingly alarmed by Beijing’s expanding influence in the region. The vessel, from a line of Yuan Wang ships that China’s military uses to track satellite and ballistic missile launches, is scheduled to remain for several days of refueling at the southern Hambantota port. China holds a 99-year lease on the port after Sri Lanka failed to pay back…