The Diplomat posted on 12 March 2019 a commentary titled "China's 'Debt Diplomacy' Is a Misnomer. Call It 'Crony Diplomacy'." by Mark Akpaninyie, Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The author says there is little evidence that Beijing coordinates a unified strategy to lure the developing world into unsustainable debt. Instead of a state-led strategy, Chinese firms have exploited poor nations, which are dependent on cheap, and sometimes bad, loans.