China's loans since 2000 total $2.2tn

Beijing has used loans to developing nations to expand its influence, but a new study says no country has received more Chinese financing than the United States, writes Alexandra Stevenson from Hong Kong

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An Amazon Web Services data centre in Ashburn, Virginia. Some of China's financing in the United States has been in the form of lines of credit to big companies like Amazon.

(REUTERS)

As one of the world's most prolific lenders, China has paid out more than $1 trillion in loans to the developing world to fund roads in Africa, ports in South America and railroads in Central Asia.

But the biggest recipient of its financing over the past two decades has been the United States, where Chinese banks have extended $200 billion in financial support to American companies and projects, according to AidData, a research institute at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The money poured into the construction of pipelines, data centres and airport terminals, and it helped to grease the wheels of corporate financing for US companies like Tesla, Amazon, Disney and Boeing. By 2017, some of this financing started to raise alarms in Washington.

In all, Chinese state-owned firms have provided $2.2 trillion in loans and grants around the world since 2000, two to four times more than previously thought, according to Brad Parks, the lead author of a report that AidData released yesterday that draws on information from more than 30,000 projects in over 100 countries.