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neverbeenwrongb4 t1_jed61w1 wrote

Some of China's investment in Africa is quite exploitative, they operate plenty of dangerous mines where the workers get maimed and killed all the time.

But the 'debt trap' accusation just falls flat. The US and other Western countries make the same kinds of loans to African countries through the IMF, and they attach significantly more onerous strings than China's loans. Most humorously, while China makes loans that allow them to seize assets after a default (which is the "trap" being alleged), the IMF makes loans that require these countries to sell off their national assets as a prior condition of receiving the loan at all.

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Master_Income_8991 t1_jedhdvf wrote

I doubt the IMF requires collateral upfront in cash as a condition for a majority of their loans, that defeats the purpose of a loan. Although if you had a source, ideally an example of a contract that would help convince me. At least this was nowhere near the case with IMF operations in Greece, right?

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neverbeenwrongb4 t1_jedoq9s wrote

The asset sell-offs aren't collateral for the loan. They're part of the IMF's "good government" requirements. Some of those requirements are perfectly reasonable, reining in corruption and state embezzlement and such. But they make very politically controversial demands to cut subsidies, lay off government workers, and privatize state-owned industries like railroads, airlines, telecoms, power plants, even minerals and oil. And privatizing those industries means selling them off to the highest bidder: typically Western foreign capital.

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