By TED CORDERO, GMA News
Published March 3, 2021 8:27pm
Photo: AIIB China-backed multilateral lender Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on Wednesday dismissed criticisms that the East Asian powerhouse is using loans to make countries fall into a debt trap, amid lingering concerns and distrust over Beijing’s diplomatic policy to let poorer and developing countries borrow from Chinese banks. During the virtual forum for Philippines-China Relations of the Association for Philippines-China Understanding (APCU), AIIB president Jin Liqun was asked to comment about the alleged “debt-trap diplomacy” of Beijing. As a result, for instance, Sri Lanka was forced to surrender control of its main southern port in the town of Hambantota to a Chinese firm as part of a plan to convert $6 billion of loans that the country owes China into equity.