As an addition: There are many excellent studies illustrating how China leverages its foreign investments across the globe exclusively to its own benefit at the cost of regional economies and their peoples.
As one study from 2023, China as an International Lender of Last Resort (pdf), states,
China’s rescue loans differ from those of established international lenders of last resort in that they (i) are opaque, (ii) carry relatively high interest rates, and (iii) are almost exclusively targeted to debtors of China's Belt and Road Initiative ... Chinese rescue lending is extended at relatively high interest rates. The [U.S.] Fed usually charges margins of around 25 basis points over the LIBOR reference rate. In contrast, the PBOC swap lines show interest rates at margins between 200 and 400 basis points above the Shibor reference rate, while the typical rescue loan by Chinese banks requires interest rates of 5 percent ... These rates are also considerably higher than the average IMF interest rate, which has been around 2 percent for non-concessional lending operations over the past 10 years ...
In a more recent investigation, researchers showed how China uses collateralizes (pdf) to achieve its goals that. As the study says, Beijing's practices,
raise new concerns about debt transparency, fiscal management, fiscal autonomy, and the quality of macroeconomic surveillance, particularly in commodity-exporting EMDEs [emerging market and developing economies] ... lending to EMDEs by Chinese creditors documents a heavy reliance on collateral unrelated to the stated purpose of the debt: loans secured by commodity revenues are not designed to generate more of these revenue ... l lenders can manage subordination risk with so-called “negative pledge” clauses in their contracts, which usually require the debtor to forswear secured borrowing ... Chinese lenders’ apparent preference for quasi-collateral means that their security interests are rarely recorded in public registries or collateral filing systems ... These factors, combined with confidentiality clauses preventing disclosure, raise asymmetric information problems among creditors ...
Both studies complement a strong body of research regarding China's malign lending practice which show similar patterns across all countries, including, of course, Africa.
@Vinylraupe@lemmy.zip
If Pedro Sanchez values human rights, where has he been all the years when Iranians have been killed by their own regime? What did he say about genocidal politics against Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mongolians, and other minorities committed by a brutal regimes in China when seeking business there?
What the sitting Spanish PM is doing is just fighting for his own survival and has nothing to do with morality.
The prime minister is facing a scandal involving a Socialist party hack who allegedly sought incriminating evidence on the police unit that is investigating his wife for alleged corruption and influence-peddling, along with his brother, according to reports. What moral stance is this?
Public anger also lingers over the response of both the national and conservative regional government to the floods in Valencia that killed 229 people in 2024. Back then, Sanchez visited the flooded region, fled the scenery over angry citizens btw. Further questions have been raised after several high-speed train derailments killed dozens of people in January.
Sanchez is loosing even support of the left as demonstrated by Yolanda Díaz, Spain's deputy prime minister and the communist head of populist left-wing Movimiento Sumar, the government’s main coalition partner. Díaz announced last week that she will not stand in the general election next year.
Recent regional elections in Spain give a glimpse where the country is heading. There is a very strong discontent towards both the ruling Socialists and the conservative Popular Party with the beneficiary being the far-right Vox, as suggested also by recent polls. And this is not in the least owed to Sanchez's politics who does nothing for the people but only for himself and his own circles.