Minding the gap: China contesting norms for public debt management?

Abstract

This article addresses the questions of whether, to what extent, and how China contests the norms and practices for public debt management in developing countries as currently preferred by the Group of Seven (G7) and G7-led multilateral institutions. More specifically, it considers three norms: debt sustainability, debt transparency and conditional debt relief. To that end, I elaborate a norm contestation typology and apply it to analyse how China discursively contests these norms. Equally, I contrast China’s rhetoric with its actual behaviours. Two findings emerge from the analysis. First, there are notable efforts by China to contest the three norms, with Chinese officials emphasising a qualitatively distinct understanding of debt sustainability and debt transparency and the appropriateness of non-conditionality and equality in the provision of debt relief. Second, there is an apparent disjunction between China’s words and actions, with its actual lending and debt relief practices (becoming) more aligned with what is currently preferred or advocated by the established actors.