China Will Not Write Off Loans To Other Countries As They Struggle To Repay Debt During The Covid-19 Coronavirus Pandamic

CNBC: China under pressure to write off loans as countries struggle to repay debt during coronavirus crisis

* “Many countries under the (Belt and Road) initiative have borrowed heavily from China to invest in new projects, but the pandemic is disrupting economies and will complicate repayment plans,” said Kaho Yu, senior Asia analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.
* Yu told CNBC that currently, low-income countries under the BRI are already asking China for debt relief.
* China has had a track record of taking over assets when countries indebted to it go under.
* It will be “under pressure” to extend those loans or even write them off, analysts say.

China could find itself having to write off massive loans as countries that owe Beijing money under its massive infrastructure project struggle with mounting debts in the coronavirus fallout, analysts say.

China’s mammoth infrastructure investment plan — also known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — is highly controversial and widely criticized for saddling many countries with debt.

It is an ambitious project that aims to build a complex network of rail, road and sea routes stretching from China to Central Asia, Africa and Europe. It is also aimed at boosting trade. Chinese financial institutions have provided hundreds of billions in funding to countries involved in the BRI projects.

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WNU Editor: China is not like the West where debts and loans are written off or substantially reduced. China will want something in return if they alleviate a country's debt burden. A naval or military base here. A political concession there. A long term lease over there. A transfer of a nation's gold reserve. But write a debt off. LOL! Never!

Who Does The World See Is The Biggest Global Superpower

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Zero Hedge: Is China Or The US The Biggest Global Superpower? Here's What The World Thinks

Is the US still the world's largest superpower? Some might argue that China may have already taken its place.

To be sure, the US still has the world's largest economy by GDP, but doubts are growing about whether the US's reputation, with a rising China increasingly seen as equal, or even more powerful, than the US.

A new study commissioned by the Pew Research Center found that more countries still believe the US is the world's foremost economic superpower.

But among the world's emerging economies, a growing number are growing more dependent on China.

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WNU Editor: Canada and Western European countries view China as the bigger superpower?!?!?!  I am not sure about that.

A Look At The Countries That Owe China Money

DW: Mapping China's Global Debt-Serfdom-ification

According to research recently published by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, there are seven countries in the world whose external loan debt to China surpasses 25 percent of their GDP. Three (Djibouti, Niger and The Republic of the Congo) are located in Africa, while four (Kyrgyztan, Laos, Cambodia and the Maldives) are in Asia.

Yet, as Statista's Katharina Buchholz notes, the world map of debt to China amassed through direct loans (excluding debt holdings and short-term trade debt) shows that a majority of countries heavily in debt to China are in Africa, but that Central Asia and Latin America follow close behind.

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WNU Editor: Here is an easy prediction. Some of these countries are going to default on these Chinese loans.What the Chinese will then do will be interesting. The Chinese are not the type of people who are willing to write-off a debt.

China`s Demand For Oil Will Transform World Politics

China Will Surpass U.S. In Oil Imports; Shift In Supply And Demand Could Transform Geopolitics -- Washington Post

China will become the world’s largest importer of crude oil in October, surpassing the U.S. for the first time as the Asian giant’s rising consumer class of drivers grows increasingly thirsty for fuel, the U.S. Energy Information Administration is projecting.

China already is the largest importer of oil from the troubled Middle East, taking away a distinction that plagued the U.S. since the 1970s. Its ascendance as the world’s largest importer — even as U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil declines to negligible levels — could transform regional and world politics as the focus of global defense efforts for decades has been keeping open the vital oil shipping lanes leading from the Persian Gulf.

Juan Zarate, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U.S. should use the occasion of China’s growing dependence on Middle Eastern oil and reduced U.S. dependence to rethink its longtime policy of bearing the lion’s share of defense costs in the Middle East and act more in its economic self-interest.

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My Comment: China`s focus will be on energy markets .... specifically obtaining oil from the Middle East. As a result .... America`s past oil shocks will probably become China`s oil shocks in the near future.

Does China Pose A Threat To Global Security?

From The Telegraph:

China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region, new satellite imagery has revealed.

The pictures show that China has built a substantial harbour which could house nuclear ballistic missile submarines and aircraft carriers.

Recent protests against the Beijing Olympic Games have drawn attention to the country's controversial record in the disputed province of Tibet. China also has a tense relationship with Taiwan.

China has argued that it has a right to protect itself and that it has no hostile intentions.

Should we trust China? Does the world’s most populous nation present a threat to the rest of the world? Or is it reasonable for a rising superpower to arm itself with nuclear weapons?

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My Comment: We in the West perceive China as one big unified and overpopulated country that is now the world's second biggest economy and the second largest army. In fact it is a country ..... like the former Soviet Union .... that is made up of numerous ethnic minorities and groups. As we can see in Tibet, many of these groups have a strong desire to be autonomous from the central government .... or even independent.

While China will have aspirations to be a global power .... and will work actively to achieve certain objectives .... its problems on the domestic front will keep them occupied for a very long time. Our main concern should be on how China's domestic problems can negatively impact the world should social unrest get out of control.