China is building a global empire of debt. Since 2005, it has invested over $2 trillion overseas, including hundreds of billions of loans for projects that would struggle to get financing from private lenders. When these enormous, risky infrastructure projects don’t pay off — as often happens — recipient countries can face debt distress and become vulnerable to coercion.  In 2017, the United States National Security Strategy named “predatory” Chinese debt diplomacy as a threat