Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin Photo: mfa.gov.cn

 
The so-called China-made "debt trap" is a lie concocted by certain forces in the world to interfere with and undermine China's cooperation with developing countries, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday during a regular press briefing.

Wang said that multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors dominated by Western countries that spread the "debt trap" theory of China are the main creditors and debt-servicing pressure sources of developing countries.

Wang made the remarks responding to media questions over a recent report released by an institution in the US claiming that the Belt and Road Initiative partner countries are "in debt to China" with major loans flowing to countries that are in financial trouble.

China's foreign investment and financing cooperation mainly involves the construction of infrastructure projects and emerging industries, which effectively helps the developing countries to resolve the bottleneck of development such as capital crunch, backward infrastructure and insufficient talent. 

Wang added that China's investment and financing cooperation with developing countries helps release the economic growth potential of the involved developing countries, which are expected to increase global real income by up to 3 percentage points and will benefit the development dynamics of the recipient countries, citing a report from the Boston University Global Development Policy Center.  

Wang noted that China's financing cooperation with developing countries accords with international practice, market principles and debt sustainability principles, and is generally welcomed by the recipient countries, providing a quality source for those countries to make up for funding gaps and to promote their economic development. 

Global Times