: What is neocolonialism and Predatory Lending?
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With those specific terms put together, the context must be China’s activities in Africa. It’s often referred to as neocolonialism, and “predatory lending” is a term used to refer to China’s habit of giving poor African nations large loans and then confiscating infrastructure and/or national resources when they inevitably fail to pay them back.
This phenomenon in general is known as debt-trap diplomacy.
Angola owes China $25 billion, Ethiopia owes them $13.5 billion, Zambia $7.4 billion, the Republic of Congo $7.3 billion and Sudan $6.4 billion. In total, African countries owe China hundreds of billions of dollars.
It should be noted that the term has been criticized and that it has been cooked up in Western think tanks for the purpose of harming China’s reputation internationally. In Africa, opinion in split on the issue of China’s activities on their continent. Some see it as a good thing. Others also note that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been doing something similar (rescuing economies with strings attached) allthewhile furthering Western ideals such as liberalism.
Personally, I think China is building up leverage. And when the day comes to exploit it, they will.
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