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The Mystery of China’s Interest-Free Loan Cancelation: Connecting the Dots

by Cobus van Staden

Amid China’s controversial role in debt crises from Sri Lanka to Zambia and beyond, the recent cancelation of 23 interest-free loans to 17 African countries caused a lot of misunderstanding, not least because the Chinese government has still not published official lists of the countries and loans in question.

Researchers at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center dug into their massive Chinese loan databases to make some predictions. Please note that these are (highly) educated guesses, and they’ll be updated if official information becomes available.

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