China has doled out tens of billions of dollars in secretive “emergency loans” to countries at risk of financial crises in recent years, turning Beijing into a formidable competitor of the western-led IMF.
The bailouts represent a pivot from the huge infrastructure loans China has extended over nearly a decade as part of its $838bn Belt and Road Initiative, a programme that made it the world’s biggest financer of public works, eclipsing the World Bank.
Three of the largest recipients of China’s rescue lending have been Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Argentina, which together have received $32.83bn since 2017, according to data compiled by AidData, a research lab at William & Mary, a university in the US.
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