"Chinese Loans Pushing Poor Countries to Brink of Collapse: Key Takeaways"
A dozen poor countries, including Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia, and Laos, are facing economic instability and even collapse due to their struggle to pay back hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign loans, much of them from China. The debt is consuming an ever-greater amount of tax revenue needed to keep schools open, provide electricity and pay for food and fuel. Two of the countries, Zambia and Sri Lanka, have already gone into default, unable to make even interest payments on loans financing ports, mines, and power plants. Experts predict that unless China quickly begins to soften its stance on not taking big losses on its loans, there could be a wave of more defaults and political upheavals.