{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://rohrabacher.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rohrabacher-china-must-stop-ensnaring-countries-in-debt", "Rohrabacher: China Must Stop Ensnaring Countries in Debt", "2018-12-11", "2018", "2018-12", "Republican", "House", "CA", "Dana Rohrabacher", "R000409", "rohrabacher.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON  Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-CA, issued the following statement Monday on China's debt trap strategy that draws small, surrounding countries into Beijing's political orbit and effective control:\nCommunist China is defrauding small countries with nonviable infrastructure projects and is charging exorbitant rates that the poor countries can't afford. When countries can't make their payments, China seizes physical control of the assets, with strategic deep-water ports being their top target.\nThis debt trap must stop. We're seeing it across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Sri Lanka is now in a terrible constitutional crisis, in part because the country is drowning in unsustainable debt to the Chinese Communists. Sri Lanka has been forced to surrender its sovereignty of their deep-water port, Hambantota. \nThe Sri Lankan people are being robbed of their sovereignty and steps -- including a national plebiscite -- to reverse to this debt-trap diplomacy must be considered.\nRohrabacher chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats.\n############", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://rohrabacher.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rohrabacher-china-must-stop-ensnaring-countries-in-debt"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4396407641470432, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}