China and African Debt

Brookings posted on 20 April 2020 a commentary titled "China and Africa's Debt: Yes to Relief, No to Blanket Forgiveness" by Yun Sun.

China holds about 20 percent of Africa's external debt, the largest bilateral creditor in the world. The author argues that China is unlikely to take a unilateral approach to debt forgiveness but will participate in the global effort. Rather than outright debt relief, China is more likely to postpone loan payments, restructure debt, and propose debt/equity swaps. China will deal with African countries on a case-by-case basis and design individual strategies with different methods of debt relief.