defaulting a loan and having that specific project repossessed is not at all equivalent to IMF demands of privatizing state assets and cutting social services lmao

I'm pretty sure you were born close to yesterday than even a year ago (Nov. 24th, 2023), considering these claims have been scrutinized to be more of a myth than reality already...

https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2022/07/11/debt-trap-sri-lanka-west-china/

According to official statistics from Sri Lanka’s Department of External Resources, as of the end of April 2021, the plurality of its foreign debt is owned by Western vulture funds and banks, which have nearly half, at 47%.

The top holders of the Sri Lankan government’s debt, in the form of international sovereign bonds (ISBs), are the following firms:

BlackRock (US) Ashmore Group (Britain) Allianz (Germany) UBS (Switzerland) HSBC (Britain) JPMorgan Chase (US) Prudential (US)

If you're not convinced, even this China-critical youtube channel "Polymatter" admits "The danger of criticizing China for the wrong reasons is that it reduces credibility when you need it the most."

The Lowy Institute finds that, quote, “90% of China's bilateral loans have gone to countries that… could sustainably absorb such debt”.

There may be things I have missed...

Okay what about the debts China cleaned off from multiple nation’s multiple times?