
China’s Rise Reverberates in Tajikistan
What started as a limited economic investment in the early 2000s has turned into a full-blown dependency: 60 percent of Tajikistan’s $3.3 billion foreign debt is owed to China’s state-run Export-Import Bank. Of the $132 million Tajikistan repaid to its foreign creditors in 2021, over $65 million went to China; almost $22 million of the money paid to China that year was interest accrued.