Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

China Says No to Writing Off Africa’s Belt and Road Debts

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats Economic Security

Comments: 0

A Chinese commerce ministry official asserted on Thursday that writing off onerous African debts to Beijing under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic would be “not simple nor effective.”

The article, appearing in the Communist Party newspaper the Global Times, appeared to be a response to calls this week for wealthy nations to suspend Africa’s debt payments until the end of the year, as the world faces a possible financial recession due to economic shutdowns caused by the Wuhan coronavirus.

Indebted African countries have been hit especially hard by the current economic slowdown “due to plummeting oil and commodity prices and weaker currencies, which ramp up external debt servicing costs,” according to a Reuters report on Monday. Some African nations may see as many as 20 million jobs lost as a result of the pandemic. On Wednesday, the Group of 20 (G20) economies, including China, the United States, India, and others, offered to suspend Africa’s debt payments until the end of 2020.

However, on Thursday, Ministry of Commerce official Song Wei – identified officially as “deputy director at the Ministry of Commerce’s Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation” – wrote that China should not write off African nations’ debt as international financial institutions have recommended, claiming such measures were “not effective.”

“The whole world is facing mounting pressure on pandemic prevention and consequent economic contraction as the novel [Wuhan] coronavirus ripples across the planet,” Song said. “China, as a creditor of some African countries, has been called upon to offer debt relief which actually is not simple nor effective.”

China is not just a creditor to “some” African countries; it is the single largest creditor to the African continent.

“What China could do to help is bring projects funded by loans back to life and realize sustainable profits, instead of measures as simple as offering write-offs. As always, China is open to talk with debtors on the basis of equality and mutual benefit,” the statement said. “Simply waiving debtors’ obligations as some countries or organizations have called for is not going to be effective as a solution. If any debtors encounter difficulties to pay on time, there may be tailored plans including rescheduling or China increasing funding to help related projects resume operation and return profits.”

African countries already deeply indebted to China through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) face serious economic trouble from the looming recession. Through the BRI, China establishes economically predatory infrastructure projects in developing nations to expand its influence. According to the Center for Global Development (CGD), Niger and Angola are among the African BRI countries likely to encounter future economic difficulties.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified 16 sub-Saharan African countries as either being in debt distress or at high risk from the possible pandemic recession, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on April 3.

African countries have called for $100 billion in bailouts and debt relief to help them cope with the negative effects of the economic shutdown caused by the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, according to SCMP‘s report.

This week, international financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called for wealthy nations to place a payment moratorium on bilateral debt owed by the world’s poorest countries, among them many African nations.

Photo: AP Photo/Jerome Delay

Link: https://www.breitbart.com/africa/2020/04/18/china-says-no-to-writing-off-africas-belt-and-road-debts/

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