In China’s global lending spree, the US has been the biggest beneficiary, study finds

Washington has spent years warning countries about the dangers of accepting Chinese loans. But over the past two decades the United States has been the largest recipient globally. That’s the finding of a new report by AidData, a research lab at William & Mary university in Virginia, which has compiled the most expansive public database to date on China’s overseas lending activities.

The findings, released Tuesday, reveal that government or majority state-owned Chinese entities loaned or granted $2.2 trillion of aid and credit spread across more than 200 countries between 2000 and 2023.

And at the top of that list of recipients is the US – a finding that the researchers say stands counter to a common assumption that Chinese financing has mainly poured into developing nations, for example under the auspices of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s flagship infrastructure drive the Belt and Road Initiative.

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