Covid Complicates Third-World BRI Debt Squeeze

Amid the coronavirus crisis, China won’t go easy on Belt and Road debt

By: Toh Han Shih

The ability of developing countries to service their debts to China under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has weakened due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, forcing Chinese state-owned banks to renegotiate construction loans they extended to financially-strapped countries. But the huge overseas debt incurred by the lenders means China…