Commitments made to 100 developing nations by the Export-Import Bank of China and the China Development Bank have fallen every year since hitting a record in 2016 as the lenders scaled back financing even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
China is the world's largest bilateral lender, according to the World Bank data. Western countries such as the United States and multilateral lenders are pressing Beijing to offer debt relief to emerging economies in distress, such as Zambia and Sri Lanka. China tends to disclose little on lending conditions and how it renegotiates with borrowers.
Russia was the top recipient, with $58 billion in loans in the 2008-2021 period, followed by Venezuela with $55 billion mostly for extraction and pipelines projects, but lending to the South American oil giant halted in 2015, two years before it defaulted on its overseas debt.
Now do USAID