From the article:
Many countries that were initially willing to take Beijing's money have expressed concern over what could happen should they default on debt payments, particularly after the Sri Lanka deal.
Part of the problem stems from Beijing's "ad hoc approach" to settling debt issues, according to a report by the Center for Global Development (CDG), which pointed to a lack of consistency in dealing with defaulting nations. In the past, China has been willing to write off or restructure debts and extend further lines of credit, while at other times it has demanded assets to service the loans.
"Without a guiding multilateral or other framework to define China's approach to debt sustainability problems, we only have anecdotal evidence of ad hoc actions taken by China as the basis for characterizing the country's policy approach," the CDG report said.
This creates significant uncertainty, and forces governments borrowing from China to rely on maintaining strong bilateral ties above all else to ensure future lending policies.
