Zambia's New President Discovers The Country Owes China Double What The Previous Government Said It Owe

A Bank of China billboard, left, at Kenneth Kaunda international airport in Lusaka. Photograph: Bloomberg  

Bloomberg: Zambian Debt to Chinese Lenders May Be More Than Disclosed 

Zambia may owe Chinese creditors almost double the amount the government has previously disclosed, complicating restructuring negotiations, a study found. 

The Johns Hopkins’ China Africa Research Initiative estimates the nation’s total liabilities to Chinese lenders at $6.6 billion and spread across at least 18 creditors, according to a report published Tuesday. That compares with an official figure of $3.4 billion. 

The finding doesn’t mean that Zambia’s total external public and publicly guaranteed debt is bigger than the $14.3 billion reported as of December 2020, according to the report by Deborah Brautigam and Yinxuan Wang. It does show, however, that the government wasn’t transparent about how much of that was owed to Chinese creditors, they said. Zambia’s government says it followed normal procedures. 

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Update #1: Zambia's Chinese debt nearly twice official estimate, study finds (Reuters) 

Update #2: Zambia said to owe far more to China than government says (Business Standard) 

Update #3: Analysts Say Zambia Concealed Half of its $6.6 Billion Debt to China (Breitbart)  

WNU Editor: Why is no one surprise.

Growing Protests In Zambians Over The Country's Debts To China

Zambia's President Edgar Lungu shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping before their bilateral meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China September 1, 2018. Image: Nicolas Asfouri/Pool via REUTERS

Jonathan W. Rosen, WPR: ‘China Must Be Stopped’: Zambia Debates the Threat of ‘Debt-Trap’ Diplomacy

LUSAKA, Zambia—Sitting in the lobby of a Lusaka hotel last month, James Lukuku was feeling energized.

The leader of Zambia’s Republican Progressive Party, a fringe opposition group, Lukuku had gained notoriety in recent months as one of the most outspoken critics of Zambia’s relationship with China—a bond he and others say is characterized by increasingly reckless borrowing that puts Zambia’s sovereignty at risk. The 37-year-old made headlines in September when he staged a one-man protest in Lusaka, the capital, holding a sign that equated China to Hitler while wearing a T-shirt with the words “Donald Trump Help” scrawled in red and black magic marker.

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WNU Editor: Zambia's debts (and about 30 other African nations) were wiped out over a decade ago by a program called the "Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and Multilateral Debt Relief initiatives". And now Zambia along with many other African countries are hopelessly in the red again .... and primarily to the Chinese. But unlike the Western banking community backed by Western governments that forgave these debts a decade ago, the Chinese are not going to forgive these debts. They will take they want, and (I predict) at a huge discount. This blog has mentioned more than once on the dangers of foreign governments getting into debt with the Chinese. In the beginning it is tempting, but with time they will own everything and will dictate your government's policies. It is unfortunate, but Africa and other countries around the world are learning this hard lesson now.