In China's $1 trillion “Belt and Road” Project, the country provides loans and invests in furthering projects (infrastructure etc.) within other developing countries. One example is in Venezuela, where China instigated soft loans up to $20 billion annually. In return, Venezuela promised to export large amounts of oil to China. However, when oil prices collapsed in 2014, Venezuela accumulated $20 billion in debt towards China (out of $150 billion total external debt). In response, China continued to hand out loans with little accountability, with the money mostly being used for political purposes or other reasons. With the current ongoing Venezuelan political crisis, it is unknown if whoever assumes power will be able to repay the nation's high debt to China. According to some critics of the Belt project, this example sheds light on how Chinese economic diplomacy policies may cause some developing nations to accumulate high debt repayments towards China.