According to the Guardian, China has invested $240bn, from 2008 to 2021, bailing out indebted countries on the belt-and-road: which include Argentina, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine. 

80% of the bailouts were issued as emergency lending after 2016. This increase in emergency lending for bailouts was coupled with a sharp decrease in infrastructure lending. 

Read more: Sri Lanka asks China to restructure its loans amid crisis

The two main china-based institutional lenders China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China were prompted towards a recalibration in light of increasing debt complications in the belt-and-road nations: favoring investments in finance capital rather than industrial capital to maintain economic stability in the belt-and-road partner states.

#China is reinforcing its economical presence in #Africa, as the #US scatters to boost its declining investment in the continent, amid fears of losing its influence. pic.twitter.com/G25CD8KtwW

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) August 17, 2022

Despite the Ukrainian conflict, the Covid-19 outbreak, problematic supply chains, and rising interest rates all serving as constituent factors of a global economic crisis that has made it challenging for all types of lenders, China has remained committed to bailing out its belt-and-road partners. 

“The belt and road initiative is as much about relationship-building as it is about infrastructure” Cobus van Staden, the managing editor of the China-Global South Project website described China’s efforts at the bailout. “This lending will cement these relationships and make China even more central to [developing countries’] future economic trajectories.”

Read more: Chinese Ambassador rebukes claims of 'debt trap' in Africa

Beijing’s finance-capital-geared lending has increased from 5% of the total of global overseas lending in 2010 to 60% in 2022, according to the study by researchers at AidData, the World Bank, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

“Emergency rescue lending is a very risky business. If you bail out borrowers that are in default or teetering on the edge of default, the challenge is knowing whether your borrower faces a short-term liquidity problem or a long-term solvency problem” one of the researchers explained.

Read more: China ready to help Sri Lanka overcome economic difficulties: Ministry

80% of China’s overseas lending is dedicated to middle-income countries. In March, the Export-Import Bank of China pledged that it would offer financial assistance to Sri Lanka after Sri Lanka was mired in a political deadlock caused by the country's worst economic crisis since its independence.

Some countries, such as Argentina, have effectively received continuous rollovers of Chinese rescue loans. Although loans may be scheduled to mature within a year, in reality, they can be postponed for a number of years.

Read more: China stands for win-win cooperation, peaceful coexistence with the US

Earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gand that Beijing has always advocated mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation between China and the United States, highlighting that this stance has not changed.

"China's stance on the development of healthy, stable and constructive China-US relations has not changed, [Beijing] has always advocated mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the US," Qin said at a meeting with US business representatives in Beijing, as quoted by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The Foreign Minister referred to the relationship between China and the US as "the most important bilateral relationship in the world."

He added that the global community would benefit from normalized ties between Beijing and Washington.

Qin referred to the US attempts to deter and suppress China as "unfair means" and hoped that it would stop using them and work instead with his country to overcome current difficulties and return to a stable trajectory.

China is ready to continue improving the business environment on its territory for companies from all over the world, including for US entities, he added.