this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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Your comment about Chinese debt is uninformed - China holds a small percentage of total African debt and there's only 1 country (Zambia, iirc) where Chinese debt is even close to half of the debt.
Eurobond debt is far greater in almost every debt distressed African nation and is the debt that African leaders and bankers commonly cite as the problem.
The Chinese debt-trap story keeps being repeated by the US state department, but it does not reflect in any way the reality of African debt.
https://chinaglobalsouth.com/2023/07/13/graph-of-the-day-chinas-real-share-of-african-debt/
This article from the same source suggests China is at 54% of Zambia's debt, which is massive for a single country based off the other graphs: https://chinaglobalsouth.com/2023/05/31/how-zambias-debt-mix-is-forecast-to-evolve/
Yep! Zambia is the only country where the numbers don't immediately disprove the debt trap narrative.
Contrasting Zambia's numbers with the percentage of China's total African debt percentage only highlights how low it is in other African countries.