The Maritime Silk Road: Chinas Debt Trap for Asian Developing Countries and Through That Chinas Expansion of Infrastructure in Asia? : A Case and Comparative Study on Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Abstract: In this paper the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) member countries in Asia are investigated. The paperis investigating Pakistan and Sri Lanka in terms of debts and how China and the MSR i s the reasonfor the debts in the country. The MSR is investigated in a geopolitical and Neo colonial perspective.Ican see a clear pattern that China is not giving any stable and sustainable financial safeguard sys-tem for developing countries in Asia and the risk of falling into a debt trap is giving because of that.The paper shows as well a pattern of Chinas infrastructure is expanding through the MSR becauseof the unstable financial situation and high debts of developing countries in Asia. This indica tes theHambantota port in Sri Lanka and the Gwadar port in Pakistan. This paper is using quantitive datawith a comparative study and two case studies.TheMSR is a geopolitical project for China and is a debt risk for developing countries which arefinancial weak and loaning unsustainable loans.