Delivering difference? Four neglected issues in China’s aid to Africa (original) (raw)

CHINESE FOREIGN AID: VISIONS AND INSTITUTIONS Literature reviews

2015

With the start of this new century China entered into a new phase of aid, after 3 decades of double digit growth China has become the world largest exporter and second largest economy today. In the light of these economic developments China has become strong enough to significantly increase its presence as a donor of official development aid (ODA). One of the main traits of Chinese aid is that economic cooperation is linked to development assistance and there is not a clear distinction between them. Economic cooperation is seen as the ultimate goal and development assistance plays a part in that. Analysing the evolution of foreign aid policies and its institutional framework would offer a better understanding on how China intends to achieve that goal and this article tries to provide that. A foundation needed for a further in depth study of its foreign aid policies.

China, Africa and the International Aid Architecture." Working paper, 2010

This paper analyzes China's growing foreign aid and export credit program as an element of the changing international aid architecture. The paper finds that practices governing Chinese aid and development finance diverge from clear OECD standards and norms on transparency and definitions, the management of concessional export credits, and the management of sovereign debt. In the area of environmental and social protections, corruption and governance, the paper finds mixed results. Chinese norms on environmental and social safeguards are evolving rapidly and there is some evidence that the framework for development loans has begun to take these higher standards into account. Regarding governance, both China and the traditional sources of development finance have rules that discourage corruption in the procurement of aid, but export credits are less well policed. Neither seem to have rules for when or how aid should be restricted when a pattern of corruption characterizes an entire recipient government. The global aid regime is not well-institutionalized regarding democracy and human rights. Neither the IMF, nor the World Bank, nor the Chinese apply conditionality in this area. Many bilateral donors do apply such conditions, but relatively inconsistently, and many still lack clear firm standards. In sum, Chinese practice is not as different in this arena as is often believed.

China, Africa and the international aid architecture

2010

This paper analyzes China's growing foreign aid and export credit program as an element of the changing international aid architecture. The paper finds that practices governing Chinese aid and development finance diverge from clear OECD standards and norms on transparency and definitions, the management of concessional export credits, and the management of sovereign debt. In the area of environmental and social protections, corruption and governance, the paper finds mixed results. Chinese norms on environmental and social safeguards are evolving rapidly and there is some evidence that the framework for development loans has begun to take these higher standards into account. Regarding governance, both China and the traditional sources of development finance have rules that discourage corruption in the procurement of aid, but export credits are less well policed. Neither seem to have rules for when or how aid should be restricted when a pattern of corruption characterizes an entire recipient government. The global aid regime is not well-institutionalized regarding democracy and human rights. Neither the IMF, nor the World Bank, nor the Chinese apply conditionality in this area. Many bilateral donors do apply such conditions, but relatively inconsistently, and many still lack clear firm standards. In sum, Chinese practice is not as different in this arena as is often believed.

How China delivers development assistance to Africa

… files/china-dev-africa …, 2008

The PRC government officials and the Chinese academic community who were generous in sharing their research and insights in interviews; the Chinese diplomatic corps in China and in all countries visited, for their frankness; and all government officials and academics with whom the research team met in-country, for their assistance.

China’s ‘Innovative and Pragmatic’ Foreign Aid: Shaped by and now Shaping Globalisation

China's New Sources of Economic Growth. Vol. II. China Update Book Series, 2017

In this chapter, we outline China’s transition from aid recipient to aid provider. We understand that China’s aid from the outset has been shaped by its own political and economic agenda, alongside critical shifts in the global political economy. Our chronology offers a lens through which to understand and project how and why China may now develop its own economic interests and those of other developing countries to more actively and directly shape globalisation. Our political economy chronology of China’s mutually beneficial approach to foreign aid highlights the external origins of many of China’s basic institutions and approaches, especially the trinity approach and the importance of inducing self-reliance. It also highlights the importance of China’s own progress in its push to help other countries. In the longer term, whether China’s relative economic scale and changing economic growth imperative are among the catalysts of a new, innovative, pragmatic and widespread era of development in Africa and other developing regions remains to be seen. Moreover, African countries and other Chinese aid recipients will ultimately— like contemporary China before them—carve out their own narrative and demands. In turn, a successful China-led globalisation may help instigate a more literal globalisation. To that end, much of the world is now e ectively ‘crossing the river by feeling the stones’, but the globalisation equivalent of that process is really just beginning.

China’s Development Assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Opportunities

Nemzet és Biztonság, 2019

As the increase of bilateral trade between China and sub-Saharan Africa in the last ten years has been skyrocketing at the expense of Western countries, paralleled by the renewed projection of Chinese soft power in the continent by means of technical aid and economic agreements, the author will analyse the scope, the underlying factors, and the potential consequences of Chinese development assistance to countries in the region. In a comparative manner, the paper also briefly describes the main features that make Chinese foreign assistance different from its Western counterpart. The author argues that there is a contradiction between the economic agenda of Beijing aimed at reproducing centre-periphery contradictions on the world stage with China at the centre of the envisaged world system, and a political discourse still based on the principle of non-interference and opposition to neo-colonialism.

A Chinese Model for Foreign Aid

Project Syndicate, 2017

As the United States and the European Union retreat from their foreign-aid commitments, only one country has the resources and the interest to assume the mantle of global development leadership. The world will have to become accustomed to China's new role.