International Railroad Discussion > Chinese funded Kenyan Railway losing $9.2 million a month

https://chinaafricaproject.com/analysis/china-faces-a-critical-test-in-kenya/

Kenya is not the only developing country where a huge debt trap looms due to a reliance on Chinese investment for large infrastructure including railroads.  Another is the high speed railway in Laos which is not even completed yet.

I bet these countries refuse to pay the debt.

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

bobwilcox Wrote:
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> I bet these countries refuse to pay the debt.

That's what the Chinese want so they can then move in and take mineral rights.

Kenya guaranteed the loan with its Port of Mombasa which will be forfeited if the debt is not paid.

Soo715 Wrote:
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> Kenya guaranteed the loan with its Port of Mombasa
> which will be forfeited if the debt is not paid.

I suspect you already understand the underlying motives behind BRI. Let's see if TO members will do their own research and understand what's going on. Thanks for posting this thread.

OK but just don't pretend that the Big Money in the USA wouldn't love to be doing the same things that China is, and that is one of the real reasons for the current anti-China rhetoric.

The  Hambantota Port Development Project in Sri Lanka is an example of what happens when debts owed to the Chinese lenders are not paid. Plenty of foreign direct investment, then a failure to pay interest.

The takeover of the port by Chinese investors gave China an excellent location just off the coast of India, and athwart of one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Highly strategic location.

There's a graphic of Chinese financed port and airport facilities around the world in this article   https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/world/asia/china-sri-lanka-port.html

 

RRTom Wrote:
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> OK but just don't pretend that the Big Money in
> the USA wouldn't love to be doing the same things
> that China is, and that is one of the real reasons
> for the current anti-China rhetoric.

That's an argument for people who are already blindly taking sides. Power is ugly, regardless of who's trying to grow it, which IS obvious - countless examples in history(that hasn't been revised, wink wink).

The Chinese have also been looking to secure the Straits of Mallaca, the gateway to the south China Sea and the Indian Ocean. Just about all of China's, Korea's, and Japan's oil imports pass through these occasionally pirate infested waters. In past decades, the US and the Brits used their navies to secure the waterway.  That has been scaled back in recent years. China's imports of clothing, shoes, etc from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, etc pass through this area.

The newly invented "islands" and low level conflict with Indonesia suggest the next steps may be in the same area.