China rivals IMF as global lender in superpower shift

China gave $US40.5 billion in such loans to distressed countries in 2021, according to a study by American and European experts who drew on statistics from AidData. China provided $US10 billion in 2014 and none in 2010. By comparison, the IMF lent $US68.6 billion to countries in financial distress in 2021 - a pace that has stayed fairly steady in recent years, except for a jump in 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. In many ways, China has replaced the US in bailing out indebted low- and middle-income countries. The US Treasury's last sizable rescue loan to a…