Philippines and Thailand Escape China's Belt and Road in Southeast Asia

Does China Control Southeast Asia through its Belt and Road Initiatives?
As China increases lending to other developing countries, charges that these loans lead to a fear of a debt trap are growing quickly. With 140 participating countries, nearly a thousand projects are underway, and hundreds of billions of dollars are committed. The ambition of Beijing’s flagship infrastructure program is extraordinary and without precedent. According to the comprehensive report issued by Aid-Data, a US-based Global Research Institute, there are 13,427 projects worth $843 billion across 165 countries in every region in the world in the past 2 decades. Extraordinary expansion in China’s overseas development finance program was recorded during the implementation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
According to the US-based Global Research Institute Aid Data in Southeast Asia, several countries are in distress to fall into China’s Debt trap through major infrastructure projects. From smaller nations of Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar to major Asean Economies of Vietnam, Malaysia, and even the biggest economies in the region, Indonesia.
Thailand and the Philippines are the only emerging ASEAN countries that are less vulnerable to China’s debt trap through infrastructure projects. Even though in Thailand, few projects are constructed through a partnership of Chinese firms, its financing where shoulder by the Thai Government.
Indonesia received the highest recipient of the Chinese loan amounting to $34.4 billion, of which only $4.4 billion was considered as sovereign debt. Vietnam has famously eschewed China’s Belt and Road Initiative. But according to AidData report, the country has been the recipient of over $16.3 billion in Chinese project financing from 2000-2017, as other official flows amounting to $16.4 billion. With only $1.3 billion reported as sovereign debt. China has also been accused of seeking influence over the Straits of Melaka, through which some 80% of its oil imports pass. Debt-trap proponents, claim Beijing inflated lending for Malaysia’s controversial East Coast Rail Link. Laos faces bankruptcy, but unlike another crisis-ridden Asian state of Sri Lanka, its future is not in its own hands. That role is played by China, whose aggressive lending has helped to take one country to the brink of default, and the other well past it.Join this channel to get access to perks:
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