Gravitas: Food crisis in Sri Lanka as Chinese debt mounts

[livingston]

Gravitas: Food crisis in Sri Lanka as Chinese debt mounts


Sri Lanka's foreign reserves have tumbled to $2.8 billion. The government does not have money to import food for its people. How will the cash-strapped nation settle its $3 billion loan? Is more borrowing the only option? Palki Sharma tells you.

 

[livingston]

Will this be the United States at some point ? With our Trillion Dollars spending spree

 

[togmaster]

Yup. China has the world by the balls.

 

[spat]

Yup. China has the world by the balls.

The danger for them is that eventually countries will simply declare bankruptcy and wipe out all that debt.

Then what do they do ? A sovereign nation just "nationalized" that Chinese owned port.

They can cut off trade and further lending of course, but are they willing to invade ?

If a conflict ever broke out between the US and China for instance, the very first thing that would happen is that those trillions of dollars on their balance sheet would evaporate instantly.


The problem with economic warfare is that it becomes irrelevant once military warfare breaks out, and that is inevitable if you start 'winning' the economic warfare by a larger margin than your opponent can stand.