Debunking the Myth of ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’: How Recipient Countries Shape China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Speakers challenge the position that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a geopolitical strategy to ensnare countries in unsustainable debt and allow China undue influence.

Research event Recording
23 October 2020 — 12:00PM TO 12:45PM
Chatham House 10 St James’s Square London SW1Y 4LE United Kingdom

How Recipient Countries Shape China’s Belt and Road Initiative

— Speakers challenge the position that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a geopolitical strategy to ensnare countries in unsustainable debt and allow China undue influence.

The speakers argue that the available evidence suggests that: economic factors are the primary driver of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); China’s development financing system is too fragmented and poorly coordinated to pursue detailed strategic objectives; and developing-country governments and their associated political and economic interests co-determine the nature of BRI projects on their territory.

They highlight the cases of Sri Lanka and Malaysia, arguing that their most controversial BRI projects have been shaped by domestic agendas and that these countries’ debt problems have arisen mainly from the misconduct of local elites and Western-dominated financial markets.

This event launches the publication Debunking the Myth of ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’: How Recipient Countries Shape China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Participants

Lee Jones, Reader in International Politics, Queen Mary University of London
Shahar Hameiri, Associate Professor of International Politics, School of Political Science and International Studies University of Queensland
Chair: Yu Jie, Senior Research Fellow on China, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House

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