China's aid-giving modalities: Impacts on sustainable growth in China-Africa trade

Abstract

The paper focuses on exploring the impact of China's production-oriented aid projects on bilateral trade between China and Africa. By matching data from AidData, Eora Global MRIO, World Development Indicators (WDI), and CEPII Remote Database, regression results indicate that China's aid model significantly promotes sustainable growth in China-Africa bilateral trade. In the mechanism analysis, it is revealed that aid enhances African countries' autonomous trade capabilities across national, industrial, and product dimensions, thereby fostering the growth of bilateral trade between China and Africa, highlighting China's aid to Africa as development-oriented. Heterogeneity test results demonstrate that the positive effects of aid are more pronounced in African countries with high political stability, convergent values, and strong cooperative consensus. Unlike previous studies that overlook production-oriented aid projects, this paper delves into this dimension, offering novel insights into the effectiveness of non-standardized aid forms.