{"id":4058,"date":"2018-08-20T23:04:46","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T23:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/?p=4058"},"modified":"2018-08-20T23:04:46","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T23:04:46","slug":"tonga-a-new-ally-in-the-fight-against-chinas-debt-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/2018\/08\/20\/tonga-a-new-ally-in-the-fight-against-chinas-debt-trap\/","title":{"rendered":"TONGA, A NEW ALLY IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CHINA\u2019S DEBT TRAP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2018\/08\/TONGA.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4059\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2018\/08\/TONGA.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"526\" height=\"436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2018\/08\/TONGA.jpg 526w, https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2018\/08\/TONGA-300x249.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2018\/08\/TONGA-260x216.jpg 260w, https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2018\/08\/TONGA-160x133.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: Geopolitical Futures<\/p>\n<p>By Jacob L. Shapiro<\/p>\n<p>Tonga, a small island nation with a population of just 107,000 and GDP of $426 million, has found itself at the center of the power struggle between China and the West in the South Pacific. The country is heavily indebted to Beijing \u2013 to the tune of 24 percent of GDP \u2013 and the first payment on a loan it took out a decade ago is due next month.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s trying to delay the payment as long as possible, or even to avoid it completely, by banding together with its South Pacific neighbors to pressure China into forgiving the debt it holds over islands in the region.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps most important, it\u2019s being egged on by New Zealand, which over the past few months has joined Australia to try to reduce China\u2019s economic leverage in the South Pacific.<\/p>\n<p>Read more at: https:\/\/geopoliticalfutures.com\/tonga-new-ally-fight-chinas-debt-trap\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Geopolitical Futures By Jacob L. Shapiro Tonga, a small island nation with a population of just 107,000 and GDP of $426 million, has found itself at the center of the power struggle between China and the West in the South Pacific. The country is heavily indebted to Beijing \u2013 to the tune of 24&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/2018\/08\/20\/tonga-a-new-ally-in-the-fight-against-chinas-debt-trap\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">TONGA, A NEW ALLY IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CHINA\u2019S DEBT TRAP<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security-and-strategy","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4060,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4058\/revisions\/4060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}