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2w ago

AidData Finds U.S. Is Top Recipient of China’s $2.2 Trillion Official Lending

Researchers say opaque financing has masked extensive Chinese credit flowing to wealthy markets.

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YICHANG, April 26, 2018 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the power plant central control room during an inspection to the Three Gorges Dam, which lies on the Yangtze River in Yichang City, central China's Hubei Province, April 24, 2018. As the world's largest hydropower project, the Three Gorges project is a multi-functional water control system consisting of a dam stretching 2,309 meters long and 185 meters high, 32 hydropower turbo-generators, a five-tier ship lock and a shiplift. Xi inspected the ship lock, the shiplift and the power plants on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, and listened to reports about work on topics including construction, power generation, navigation and environmental protection. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi via Getty Images)

Overview

  • The study estimates about $2.2 trillion in Chinese official-sector credit disbursed from 2000 to 2023, with nearly $202 billion directed to U.S. projects.
  • China’s lending shifted toward upper‑middle and high‑income economies, rising from roughly 12% of flows in 2000 to about 76% by 2023.
  • U.S. exposure includes liquidity lines for firms such as Amazon, Tesla, Boeing and Disney, plus financing for LNG terminals, data centers and airport expansions.
  • AidData documents extensive use of offshore affiliates, shell entities and complex instruments that obscure loan origins and can facilitate acquisitions of critical technologies.
  • Compiled over 36 months from more than 246,000 sources with a broad definition of official lenders, the report finds China was the world’s largest official creditor by 2023 and says the pattern is drawing policy scrutiny.