Three Experts Reflect on China’s Ambitious New Aid and International Development Agenda

The Chinese government earlier this month published a major update to the country’s foreign aid and international development strategy. The new white paper entitled “China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era” maps out an ambitious new vision that integrates Chinese overseas development with the Belt and Road and aims to position Beijing among the top tier of international aid actors.

3 Perspectives From 3 Overseas Development Institute Scholars on the Importance of China’s New Development White Paper

• MULTILATERAL VS. BILATERAL: “China’s new white paper comes at a time when the influence and credibility of the US in the global system has been in disastrous decline. The paper reinforces China’s commitment to multilateralism and to pouring new money into multilateral institutions, emphasizing its credibility as a cooperative global power. But its approach to low-income country (LIC) debt remains bilateral” — Yunan Chen, Senior Research Officer

• HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE: “China’s new white paper points towards a more strategic approach to its longstanding interest in disaster response. A short subsection in previous white papers, the part on ‘responding to global humanitarian challenges together’ may signal an elevation of humanitarian issues as a priority. It details China’s role in the Covid-19 response but also disaster relief and recovery, support to refugees, and food security. But it is unclear how significant this shift will be in practice” — Barnaby Willitts-King, Senior Research Fellow

• THE BELT & ROAD INITIATIVE:  “What really catches my eye is the role of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the document. The BRI is defined as a ‘major platform’ for China’s international development cooperation, and it is presented as a framework to expand aid to low- and middle-income countries. Initially, the BRI didn’t necessarily have this ‘developmental’ spin, but as we said elsewhere, it is a fluid concept and can be adapted to fit different needs” — Linda Calabrese, Research Fellow

Other Views on the White Paper

• The Diplomat: What Does a New White Paper Tell Us About China’s International Aid? by Zhang Chao and Tang Yuxuan
• Green Belt and Road Initiative Center: Analysis and opinion on the White Paper on “China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era” by Christoph Nedopil Wang
• Dev Policy Blog: Insights on China’s 2021 white paper on international development cooperation by Anthea Mulakala and Hongbo Ji
• Development Reimagined: China’s new white paper on international development cooperation was released 1 week ago. We’ve been analyzing it in depth so you don’t have to.
• Center for Global Development: China’s Foreign Aid: A Primer for Recipient Countries, Donors, and Aid Providers by Leah Lynch , Sharon Andersen and Tianyu Zhu

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The post Three Experts Reflect on China’s Ambitious New Aid and International Development Agenda appeared first on The China Africa Project.

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