Episode 274: Pandas, Ports, and Competing with China’s BRI

Today, Les, Jess, Jamil, Morgan, and special guest John Lipsey all sit down together - in person! - to discuss America’s stolen pandas and the U.S. Development Finance Corporation’s (DFC) recent loan of $550 million to Sri Lanka to support the construction of a deep-water shipping terminal. This loan is a recent example of DFC’s efforts to support the building of global infrastructure, while also supporting U.S. foreign policy. What’s the difference between China’s Belt and Road Initiative and America’s DFC lending? Can the US DFC compete with China’s BRI globally? Should we have let China take back our pandas?Want to learn more about this topic? Check out these articles that our experts used to frame our discussion: https://nationalzoo.si.edu/news/giant-pandas-depart-smithsonians-national-zoo-and-conservation-biology-institute-for-chinahttps://www.dfc.gov/media/press-releases/dfc-makes-more-91-billion-financial-commitments-fiscal-year-2023https://www.csis.org/analysis/mission-creep-development-finance-corporationhttps://fortune.com/2023/11/08/us-dfc-china-belt-and-road-553m-investment-sri-lanka-colombo-port/Follow our experts on Twitter: @notTVJessJones@jamil_n_jaffer @lestermunson@morganlroach@JohnCLipseyLike what we're doing here?  Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe.  And don't forget to follow @masonnatsec on Twitter! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.