The motives of China’s foreign aid

Abstract

This chapter discusses the political, economic, and humanitarian motives driving Chinese aid. Concerning the political drivers, the Chinese government uses aid as a foreign policy tool, which should help the country to create a favorable international environment for China’s development, support the country’s rise to global power status, influence global governance, and reward countries that abide by the One-China Policy. Moreover, aid has increasingly been used to promote trade with developing countries and loans are extended in exchange for natural resources. Finally, China emphasizes that it gives aid in order to help other developing countries to reduce poverty and improve people’s livelihoods, a claim supported by the data as poorer countries receive more support. While the mixture of political, economic and humanitarian goals does not set China apart from the so-called “traditional” Western donors, China differs in the detailed content of its interests and the explicit emphasis on “mutual benefit” in the pursuance of its goals. Acknowledgements: Excellent research assistance was provided by Samuel Siewers and Felix Turbanisch. We further thank Jamie Parsons for proof-reading of an earlier version of this chapter. This is a draft chapter. The final version will be available in the Handbook of the International Political Economy of China edited by Ka Zeng, forthcoming, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd The material cannot be used for any other purpose without further permission of the publisher, and is for private use only.