A bill currently under consideration in New York State could reshape sovereign debt renegotiations around the world by making private creditors accept the same losses as the U.S. government would as a sovereign creditor instead of holding out for a full payback.
The bill comes as countries like Zambia and Sri Lanka face their loan renegotiations being dragged out for years as U.S.-based private lenders stonewall to obtain better deals. 52% of the ...
Category: U.S.-CHINA-AFRICA
New Boston University Report Challenges Chinese Debt Trap Meme That’s Still Popular With U.S. Government Officials
Researchers at Boston University's Global Development Policy Center did not mince words in a report published this week, in which they stated that "debt trap diplomacy is not a driver of Chinese lending and overseas development finance." For anyone who follows ...
Preview of New U.S.-China Popularity Polling in Africa
The influential African polling outfit Afrobarometer has released a glimpse of new polling results among African populations of their perceptions of external powers. Afrobarometer surveys have noted consistently high (and similar) approval rates of both China and the United States in Africa. However, now that popularity seems ...
African Leaders to Kamala Harris: We’re Going to Work With Both the U.S. and China
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is back in Washington, D.C., after wrapping up a week-long, three-nation tour of sub-Saharan Africa over the weekend. Before she left, Harris held a press conference on Friday with President Haikinde Hichilema, where she gently prodded China ...
Harris Arrives in Zambia Where China Questions Will Loom Much Larger Than in Ghana
U.S. Vice President landed in Zambia on Wednesday for the second leg of a three-nation, week-long Africa tour. During her first stop in Ghana, the Vice President assiduously tried to avoid any reference to China despite persistent questions from the traveling ...
Georgetown University’s Ken Opalo Why the U.S. Can’t Compete With China in Africa
Until the Biden administration released its new strategy for Africa last August, U.S. foreign policy towards the continent had been largely shaped by a longstanding desire in Washington to challenge China's growing presence there. Going all the way back to the ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Proposed New York Law Could Reshape Debt Negotiations Around the World
“We’re Not Competing With China” in Africa Says Linda Thomas-Greenfield
The United States’s people-to-people ties in Africa make it impervious to Chinese competition, said U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in an interview with CNN. It's interesting to compare it with remarks by her ...
Why Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s Hot Take on Chinese Debt in Africa Is So Problematic
In a recent interview, the U.S. ambassador to the UN (and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa) weighed in on China's role in African debt distress in terms that could be described as 'blinkered' at best ('disingenuous' is another possibility):
U.S. Treasury Secretary Blames China for Delays in Zambia Debt Restructuring
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen accused China of blocking progress for Zambia's drawn-out debt restructuring process that is now entering its second year. “I know the Chinese have been a barrier to concluding the negotiations,” she said in Lusaka on Monday, the ...
Get Ready For Lots of Tough Talk on Chinese Debt When Janet Yellen Travels to Africa Next Month
Just days after it wrapped up a summit with African leaders, the Biden administration is following through on its promise to send more high-level officials to the continent. First up is Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who will ...
Chinese State Media Strident on Summit
While the Chinese public seems disinterested in the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit, China’s state media is rolling out the invective. The state-owned nationalist tabloid Global Times published two highly negative articles dismissing the summit. In ...