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Allegations and accusations that China is trapping Africa into unsustainable debt agreements have dominated the conversation around Africa-China relations in Western media, but what does the data tell us? The reality is that China is canceling 23 loans to African countries amid this ‘Debt Trap’ debate.
We look at the international implications of this claim, what debt trap diplomacy is, and who owns most of Africa’s external debts. Mikaela Nhondo Erskog joins us to discuss Sri Lanka, the African Development Bank, and the “secret” lenders they don’t tell us about. Mikaela is researcher at TriContinental Institute for Social Research and one of the hosts of the new podcast The Crane, an African China podcast by the Dongsheng Collective.
Plus: We discuss Mikhail Gorbachev’s legacy, what to make of Biden’s student loan debt moves, Lindsey Graham’s threats of “riots in the streets” if Trump is prosecuted, and more.
Dongsheng News can be found at https://dongshengnews.org/en/ The Crane: An Africa-China Podcast is available at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crane-an-africa-china-podcast/id1635151634 as well as on Spotify and wherever podcasts are found. Follow Dongsheng News on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DongshengNews
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About the Author
Rachel Hu is a journalist with “BreakThrough News,” a new independent media project, where she hosts the podcast “It’s Not You, It’s Capitalism.”
She is also a host on WBAI 99.5FM in NYC and has been an anti-war and anti-racist activist with the ANSWER Coalition for the last decade.
Rachel can be reached at: rachel@wbai.org.
Chris Garaffa has been an anti-imperialist and social justice organizer since joining the movement against the Iraq war in 2003.
Chris is a weekly guest on Sputnik Radio’s “By Any Means Necessary,” and co-hosts the podcast “The Reboot,” focusing on the intersection between technology and human rights.
Chris can be reached at: chris.garaffa@gmail.com.
[…] The Truth Behind the Africa-China ‘Debt Trap’ Myth, by Rachel Hu and Chris Garaffa (Audio) […]
Someone whom I believe to be a troll on the feminist social media Spinster told me that the World Bank and the IMF are humanitarian organizations. So outrageous it’s not even funny.