Ex-PBOC Governor Rebuts Criticism of Belt and Road Financing as ‘Debt-Trap’

China’s former central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan rejected criticism of the nation’s Belt and Road Initiative for developing countries as “debt-trap diplomacy,” calling the accusations groundless and part of a “political tendency to smear China.”

The criticism, mostly from Western officials, asserts that the Chinese program to finance infrastructure projects is intended to exert influence over some developing countries by providing unsustainably large amounts of loans.