Deborah Brautigam on Whether the Burgeoning U.S.-China Conflict Will Complicate Debt Relief for Africa

Creditors’ debt stock in Africa’s DSSI-eligible countries, 2018. Graphic by CARI using World Bank data.

Professor Deborah Brautigam, director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. reflected on the “war of words” between the World Bank, led by longstanding China-hawk David Malpass and Beijing.

Brautigam explains that the concerns expressed by the U.S. government, World Bank and other stakeholders about the role of the China Development Bank in the current African debt crisis may be misplaced, or worse, purely political.

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by Eric Olander

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