'China-made debt-traps' nothing but a narrative trap: Chinese FM

(ECNS) -- "China-made debt-traps" are nothing but a narrative trap created by some forces to disrupt and jeopardize China's cooperation with other developing countries, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin at a regular press briefing on Tuesday.

Wang pointed out firstly that this “debt trap” rhetoric goes against economic common sense. "As we all know, a healthy, right amount of debt is conducive to socioeconomic development. Many countries take government debt as an important form of raising funds and lever for economic development," he said.

"Anyone who talks about only the negatives of debt without mentioning its benefits or even portrays it as a poison for development is simply being ill-informed or amateurish," Wang commented.

He further noted that this ““debt trap” rhetoric also runs counter to facts. "China’s investment and financing cooperation with other countries focuses on infrastructure and production sectors and has successfully helped developing countries address lack of funding, infrastructure and talents and other development bottlenecks and enhance their self-driven development capacity," he said.

According to a report by the U.S.-based Boston University Global Development Policy Center, the investment and financing cooperation between China and fellow developing countries could help these countries to overcome bottlenecks in development, unlock growth potential and increase global real income by up to three percentage points. 

"To describe development resources as a “debt trap” is to call white black," Wang added.

He also stressed that this “debt trap” rhetoric wrongly pictures the will of the developing countries. "Investment and financing cooperation between China and fellow developing countries is carried out in compliance with international rules, market laws and the principle of debt sustainability. Widely welcomed in the developing world, it offers a good choice for debt-laden countries to meet funding shortfalls and boost economic growth," he said.

Wang brings out the fact that not a single cooperation partner has accused China of creating “debt traps”. Leaders of developing countries have noted that China shows up where and when the West will not or are reluctant and is a true good friend.

"It is a handful of Western countries who have been spreading the fallacy of 'Chinese debt traps'," he noted.

Wang revealed that the multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors these countries dominate are the major creditors of developing countries and constitute the major source of stress for them in terms of debt repayment.

"They are the ones that need to make substantive contributions to easing developing countries’ debt burden," he emphasized.