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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