China under fire over ‘debt trap’ at UNHRC; receives credit for ‘full-blown catastrophe’ in nations

Mar 23, 2023

Geneva (Switzerland), Mar 23 (ANI): Amid several countries struggling to repay the loans given by China, European Foundation for South Asian Studies Director Junaid Qureshi on March 22 in Switzerland’s Geneva raised the worsening ‘debt trap’ situation going on in countries like Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Calling the debt trap a ‘full-blown catastrophe’, Qureshi said that China’s debt trap diplomacy and its strategy has been exposed. “In the past year, the debilitating impact of this Chinese strategy has been exposed a few times. The debt trap diplomacy that China unleashed upon smaller neighbors such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan has now evolved into a full-blown catastrophe, the magnitude of which has rightly led to considerable international focus,” Qureshi said. “In the absence of other voices to speak for them, the plight of the people of Gilgit Baltistan deserves the close attention of this august Council, as does China’s utter disregard for human rights,” he further added. The remakes were made at an intervention during the 52nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on March 22.