A groundbreaking new analysis by researchers in the United States and Germany provides an unprecedented look inside the contracts that China uses to lend billions of dollars to developing countries around the world.

The new report, “How China Lends,” was joint effort by scholars at AidData at William & Mary College, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany, the Center for Global Development and the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C.

What they found is that Chinese lenders are “hard-nosed negotiators” who often structure loan deals that weigh heavily in Beijing’s favor and include numerous clauses that shroud the agreements in secrecy. But they also acknowledge that many of the methods the Chinese employ are “neither unique nor unprecedented.”

One of the report’s authors, AidData Executive Director Bradley Parks, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss what their survey of 100 Chinese loan contracts revealed about China’s approach to international development finance and how it differs from that of traditional lenders.

Show Notes:

• AidData: How China Lends: A Rare Look into 100 Debt Contracts with Foreign Governments by Anna Gelpern, Sebastian Horn, Scott Morris, Brad Parks and Christoph Trebesch
• Financial Times: China’s secret loan contracts reveal its hold over low-income nations by Jonathan Wheatley
• Axios: How China uses secret loans for geopolitical power by Felix Salmon

About Bradley Parks:

Dr. Bradley Parks is the Executive Director of AidData at the College of William and Mary. He leads a team of 35 program evaluators, policy analysts, and media and communication professionals who work with governments and international organizations to improve the ways in which overseas investments are targeted, monitored, and evaluated.