China Spent $240 Billion Bailing Out ‘Belt and Road’ Countries, Study Shows

Workers take down a Belt and Road Forum panel outside the venue of the forum in Beijing on April 27, 2019. - Chinese President Xi Jinping urged dozens of world leaders on April 27 to reject protectionism and invited more countries to participate in his global infrastructure project after seeking to ease concerns surrounding the programme. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP) Photo credit should read GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

China spent $240 billion in bailing out 22 participating countries of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by the end of 2021, a new study shows.

The study published on Tuesday by AidData, a research lab at William & Mary, a public university in Virginia, notes the significant scale of China’s cross-border rescue lending: it says that China’s $240 billion bailout is more than 20 percent of total International Monetary Fund (IMF) lending over the past decade, with an accelerating trend—$185 billion, or nearly 80 percent, of the total $240 billion was extended during the recent five years between 2016 and 2021.