Taiwan grants Haiti US$150 million loan to enable country to build a full-scale electrical grid
Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/29
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Hot on the heels of last week’s defection of Burkina Faso to
(Image by Pixabay user erwin66as)
China, and the switching of neighbor the Dominican Republic’s allegiance to Beijing earlier this month, Taiwan has agreed to loan about US$150 million dollars to Haiti to electrify the whole Caribbean island country, reports Haiti Libre.
Just before Haitian President Jovenel Moïse began his current five-day visit to Taiwan with a 30-member delegation, Jude Alix Patrick Salomon, the Minister of Economy and Finance announced that Taiwan has granted a loan of approximately US$150 million dollars to build an extensive electric grid in Haiti.
With China willing to offer multi-billion dollar loans as part of its “dept trap diplomacy” strategy which lures third world leaders with massive loans in exchange for severing ties with Taiwan, many worry that Haiti could be next. The most insidious part of China’s dept trap diplomacy is that after corrupt leaders have taken their cut, the countries are ultimately saddled with a mountain of debt they can never repay and thus must surrender a strategic asset, such as a sea port, to China in perpetuity.
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