Try to imagine a short, shriveled-up old lady, fists clenched and stomping her feet, angrily vowing to “counter” China’s influence in international financial institutions and its lending to developing countries. There you have it—Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, dismissing reality, and telling a House Appropriations Committee subcommittee on March 29 that the U.S. is going to get tough with China. Anything optimistic happening in the world isn’t really there.
How? Why? As Yellen’s story goes, Reuters reported, China doesn’t really lend money for development. It just saddles emerging nations with debt. So, now, as some erudite report has claimed, China is just bailing out countries to which it previously lent money so they could build “Belt and Road infrastructure.” And since these projects allegedly didn’t yield expected financial dividends, those poor countries are left holding the bag. She pointed to Zambia, Ghana and Sri Lanka as victims of China’s “debt trap.”
