Soon after USAID was closed in February, speculation circulated that China would move quickly to fill the void left by the United States. That did not happen.
While the Chinese did step in to provide modest additional funding for a handful of programs, like demining initiatives in Cambodia and support for the Africa CDC in Addis Ababa, overall, there's been no significant change in China's foreign aid programs.
That did not surprise Alicia Chen, a PhD candidate at Stanford University, who noted in a recent Foreign Affairs article that Beijing is very tactical with where and how it distributes overseas development assistance. Alicia joins Eric to discuss Beijing's foreign aid strategy and how it differs from other major donors.
📌 Key topics in this episode:
- How China defines foreign aid
- Aid versus development finance in China
- Why China's aid budget is relatively small
- The role of Chinese development banks
- Myths about "free" Western and Chinese aid
- Aid as a tool of diplomatic influence
- China's focus on regional organizations
- African Union and ASEAN case studies
- Donkey hide trade and AU diplomacy
- What China's aid strategy means for the West
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