Accommodating China 

• Some experts contend China is learning the harsh fact of its fragile lending institutions and lack of global rapport will impede its debt-collecting efforts. Therefore, Western creditors should be flexible in fitting Beijing into its debt-collector role, and the IMF should continue to help distressed countries. 

• However, China's incentives and interests diverge from the IMF or Western creditors, limiting cooperation. 

• Although China has a fragile lending structure, the IMF and Paris Club members should acknowledge that China can organize responses for debt restructurings as Beijing succeeded in bilateral debt renegotiation with Zambia in 2018. 

• Yet, China's lack of transparency slows the IMF's effort to solve the BRI debt crisis because it violates the IMF's norm of transparency and comparability. No one would want to fund the IMF to pay for bad Chinese lending decisions. 

Options for the IMF to benefit the world 

• The US and other bilateral creditors could help BRI borrowers coordinate debts with one another to improve transparency and information sharing, allowing borrowers to negotiate their debts with China as a group. 

• The IMF must establish clear conditions that borrowers must achieve before receiving new credit facilities to protect the IMF from recurring conflicts with China during debt restructuring processes. 

• Although some may see these efforts as "anti-China," principles of transparency and comparability are key in debt restructuring and protecting the IMF from the fallout of the BRI debt crisis.