Never make a loan with the Chinese government. They intentionally bankrupt you to "borrow" your asset (in many cases, important sea ports) for 99 years. They update that contract every year to lend it fir the next 99 years. You effectively gave away your asset to China forever.

That's also what the occupiers of China did to China itself before the end of WW2 – seize Chinese ports indefinitely.

This was the entire point. If you loan out money that immediately gets paid to construction firms you own, you're effectively just charging people (with interest) to be neocolonialized.

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I always wondered this, what happens if a country in debt gets conquered by another entity? Are the debt still valid?

I do feel many of these nations should just straight up rent ports and such to China instead of taking the loans, in exchange for a lump sum payment, with restrictions for military use/limitations, and usage in support of war.

Might not get quite as much money, but seems far more favorable than the outcomes of belt-and-road loans (not just in the unlikelihood of debt repayment, but how the funding is used [vendor/company restrictions]).