Are you just making stuff up? Who said anything about wanting all countries to be the same in the scheme? No one did. You know no one did. Why say that? You do have this terrible habit of changing an argument to one that no one has made. You do it way too frequently for it to be a mistake.
By the way you need to improve your Google skills.
I looked at 5 articles - all had a similar theme of 'unequal treaties' I did not see any let alone a consensus of a debt overhang. I could continue looking but that would probably feel like I was looking for the answer I wanted.
This looks as if you are arguing that the concept of debt trap diplomacy is not really something that should be considered as there is not debt trap diplomacy in the Philippines. I may be jumping a little but that is how I read it.
[QUOTE=East_coast;3630080]I looked at 5 articles - all had a similar theme of 'unequal treaties' I did not see any let alone a consensus of a debt overhang. I could continue looking but that would probably feel like I was looking for the answer I wanted.]
My argument is simple and clear. If I know the reports on the Philippines with regard to the risks of a debt trap are bollocks then how do I know the other stories are not bollocks. Not that all countries are the same, not that because it is is false in the Philippines it must be false in all the other countries, not that you should not consider debt trap diplomacy. Simply how can I trust what I read about other countries?
I am not a complicated person, if I argue point A I tend to mean point A so no need to expand or infer from point A to B,C and Z.
The first two articles when I googled, do you want me to look for more? Perhaps they only come up in the Philippines?
https://www.rappler.com/nation/22472...ff-loans-china
https://www.rappler.com/thought-lead...hina-debt-trap
Oh come on EC. Just look at the headlines. Yes they are not saying the Philippines is about to default tomortow, what they are clearly saying is that risk is there in the future - except it isn't outside of "the moon could turn out to be an alien spaceship waiting to attack earth" type probabilities. But if you want to continue arguing that no one is talking about the Philippines having fallen into a Chinese debt trap (despite that being the headline) what can I say. I am glad you agree that the Philippines is not in or likely to be in a debt trap.