Chinese foreign aid may be considered as both governmental (official) and private
development aid
Development aid (or development cooperation) is a type of aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political International development, development of developing countries. It is distinguishe ...
and
humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is material and Humanitarian Logistics, logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homelessness, homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. Th ...
originating from the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
(PRC).
Chinese official aid - unlike most major nation-state sources of
aid
In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Th ...
- is not regulated and measured under the
OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...
's protocols for
official development assistance
Official development assistance (ODA) is a category used by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure foreign aid. The DAC first adopted the concept in 1969. It is w ...
(ODA). According to OECD estimates, 2020 official development assistance from China increased to US$4.8 billion. In this respect, the program is similar in monetary size to those of Norway and Canada. China, however, provides a larger amount of development finance in the form of less-concessional loans.
The Chinese government represents its aid as characterised by a framework of
South-South cooperation and "
not interfering in the internal affairs of the recipient countries".
In 2018, China established the
China International Development Cooperation Agency
The China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), branded as China Aid, is the foreign aid and international development agency of China. It is a deputy ministerial-level agency affiliated with the State Council of China, State C ...
(CIDCA) to have the main responsibility for coordinating the country's foreign aid. Other government bodies continue to have roles in administering foreign aid from China.
History
China's approach to foreign aid has changed a number of times since the 1949 establishment of the PRC, often prompted by changing domestic circumstances and domestic politics.
During the Mao era, China focused on providing aid to other countries in support of socialist and anti-imperialist causes.
An early instance was the donation of
CHF 20 million to Egypt 1956 during the
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...
.
By the 1960s, China was more broadly providing aid to dozens of
Third World countries in Asia and Africa.
When China began its foreign aid program, it was the only poor country that was supplying outbound foreign aid, even providing assistance to countries that had a higher
GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...
per capita than China.
Although China also received foreign aid, it was a net donor of foreign aid during this period.
During the Cold War, China's foreign aid was often motivated by geopolitics, particularly the issue of
international recognition of the PRC (as opposed to the Republic of China government on Taiwan).
From 1956 to 1976, China provided $3.665 billion in foreign aid to the third world.
China provided ten percent of these aid funds to Middle Eastern countries.
From 1970 and 1975, China helped finance and build the
TAZARA Railway in
East Africa
East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...
, which cost about $500m, and as of 2012 was considered to be China's largest-ever single-item aid project. In 1974 (near the end of
Mao Zedong's period as China's leader), aid reached the remarkably high proportion of 2% of gross national product. The proportion declined greatly thereafter although the absolute quantity of aid has risen with China's growing prosperity.
During the Reform and Opening Up era, China deemed revolutionary-oriented foreign aid no longer financially feasible.
The motivation of aid became more pragmatic and less about promoting ideology.
Outgoing aid was decreased and redirected towards smaller projects which were more likely to be sustainable.
China also received increased amounts of development finance, including from
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
and the World Bank, and became a net recipient of foreign aid.
China again changed its foreign aid approach in the 1990s.
Following the Cold War, China's participation in foreign aid was increasingly motivated by economic interests, especially resource security.
China again became a net provider of foreign development finance in 2005.
Since the mid-2010s, China has announced a series of large-scale foreign aid commitments. In September 2015, during the United Nations' 70th anniversary summit, China pledged the “Six 100s” (6个100)initiative, which included 100 projects each in poverty reduction, agriculture, trade, climate, healthcare, and education. It also established the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund and the China-UN Peace and Development Fund, and expanded training and scholarship programs for developing countries.
In May 2017, at the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, China pledged RMB 60 billion in aid for livelihood projects and emergency food assistance, and increased funding for South-South cooperation.
The China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) was created in 2018 to help streamline the process of China's foreign aid, in which the ministries
of commerce and
foreign affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...
and the
State Council are also involved.
Since 2018, it has had an increasingly significant role in coordinating aid and has done so with a greater focus on
foreign policy
Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...
objectives and opposed to
foreign trade
International trade is the exchange of Capital (economics), capital, goods, and Service (economics), services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (See: World economy.)
In most countr ...
objectives.
In 2019, at the second Belt and Road Forum, China announced initiatives to deepen cooperation in agriculture, health, disaster reduction, and water resources, and launched a Belt and Road South-South Cooperation plan on climate change. It also pledged support for scholarship programs and invited 10,000 participants from partner countries for exchanges in China.
In May 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, China committed $2 billion in international assistance over two years, supported the creation of a UN humanitarian hub in China, strengthened medical cooperation with developing countries, and pledged to treat its COVID-19 vaccines as a global public good. Assistance was delivered to over 150 countries and international organizations.
In the 2020s, China increasingly framed its foreign aid as part of broader South-South cooperation, maintaining that it remains the world’s largest developing country. Aid efforts have been more closely aligned with the Belt and Road Initiative, which is promoted as a global public good. In addition, China has emphasized supporting the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, especially in response to global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Comparison with ODA
Chinese aid, unlike the aid provided by most developed countries, is not governed by the categories of the
OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...
's
Development Assistance Committee
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is a forum to discuss issues surrounding aid, development and poverty reduction in developing countries. It describes itself as being the ...
, and is not counted in international statistics as
Official Development Assistance
Official development assistance (ODA) is a category used by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure foreign aid. The DAC first adopted the concept in 1969. It is w ...
(ODA).
Because it does not operate within the OECD framework, China does not refer to its foreign aid as ODA, instead describing it as foreign aid/assistance (''duiwai yuanzhu'').
Rather than being a "donor", China sees itself as working within a framework of South-South cooperation:
The founding declaration of the
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) makes explicit China's critique of the dominant global mode of foreign aid, which in the Chinese view results in the mistreatment of developing countries:
Each country has the right to choose, in its course of development, its own social system, development model and way of life in light of its national conditions. . . . Moreover, the politicization of human rights conditionalities on economic assistance should be vigorously opposed to as they constitute a violation of human rights.
In contrast to Western models of aid including the OECD model, China does not condition aid on political changes or market liberalization.
As Professor Dawn C. Murphy summarizes, “From China’s perspective, it is not merely offering an alternative model of foreign aid; it is directly critiquing the current system and the mistreatment of developing countries in that system.”
The only political commitment China requires from aid recipients is that they adhere to the
One China
''One China'' is a phrase describing the relationship between the People's Republic of China (PRC) based on mainland China, and the Republic of China (ROC) based on the Taiwan Area. "One China" asserts that there is only one ''de jure'' Ch ...
principle; China does not otherwise require concessions on issues of governance.
China's approach to financial aid has not changed over time, but the scope of its aid has grown as its own economic development needs have increased.
As of 2017, China does not provide comprehensive data on its foreign aid.
The OECD has estimated that the quantity of China's ODA-like aid in 2018 was $4.4 billion.
If counted as ODA, this would have placed China tenth in the list of donor states that year, between Norway and Canada, and far behind the United States which provided $34 billion. However, China provides a much higher volume of development financing that would not qualify as ODA because it lacks a sufficient concessional element and/or is linked to commercial transactions.
A 2017 study by
AidData, a research lab at the
College of William & Mary
The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public university, public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III of England, William III and Queen ...
, found that China's ODA-like aid was effective at producing economic growth in recipient countries.
A 2023 blog post from
Brookings examines the impact of Chinese foreign aid on recipient countries based on a meta-regression analysis of 1,149 estimates from 29 studies. It finds that Chinese aid has a small, heterogeneous effect on development outcomes, with a slight positive impact on economic growth, somewhat consistent with the claim that Chinese government-financed transport projects contribute to closing developing countries’ infrastructure gaps, but slight negative correlations with deforestation and public perception of China. Both Chinese and OECD aid show a slight positive impact on economic outcomes, suggesting that infrastructure projects funded by both contribute to development, though the effect is small. However, Chinese aid differs in its association with negative perceptions of China and adverse environmental impacts, such as deforestation, contrasting with the more positive soft power effects and mixed environmental results of OECD aid. Neither form of aid robustly affects governance or social outcomes, and Chinese aid does not significantly influence conflict or stability, unlike some findings on Western aid. The heterogeneity in Chinese aid's impact is influenced by the type of development outcome measured, variations in aid measurement, different estimation methods, geographic regions, and author affiliations, highlighting the complexity of assessing aid effectiveness across diverse contexts.
Administration and budget
The Department of Foreign Aid (established in 1982)
of the
Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) became the primary government body responsible for coordinating and disbursing foreign aid until 2018.
That department was incorporated into CIDCA in 2018, and CIDCA now has the primary role in this area.
According to the December 2021 ''Measures for the Administration of Foreign Aid'', (1) CIDCA is in charge of drafting aid policies, guidelines, annual plans, and budgets; (2) MOFCOM is in charge of implementing foreign aid projects and selecting the firms to undertake them; and (3) the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...
makes recommendations based on diplomatic needs and its consulates and embassies supervise overseas projects.
Numerous other government bodies also have roles in administering foreign aid and development assistance.
The
National Development and Reform Commission
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is the third-ranked executive department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, which functions as a macroeconomic management agency. Established as the State Planning C ...
coordinates handles aid on climate cooperation issues.
The
Ministry of Finance
A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position .
A ministry of finance's portfoli ...
makes donations to multilateral financial institutions.
Humanitarian assistance is led by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...
.
The
Ministry of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
provides government scholarships.
The
National Health Commission
The National Health Commission (NHC) is a Ministries of the People's Republic of China, cabinet-level executive department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China which is responsible for formulating national health policies. It ...
coordinates China's overseas medical teams.
The
Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim), a
policy bank
Policy bank (), or policy lender, is a State-owned enterprise, state-owned financial institution established by the government of the People's Republic of China with the goal of implementing official economic policies and carrying out financial bus ...
, provides foreign assistance in the form of concessional loans.
Due to the secrecy of China's aid programme details (of how much is given, to whom and for what) are difficult to ascertain.
According to the ''2021 white paper China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era,'' between 2013 and 2018, China allocated a total of RMB 270.2 billion in foreign aid, comprising grants, interest-free loans, and concessional loans. Of this, RMB 127.8 billion (47.3%) was provided as grants, RMB 11.3 billion (4.2%) as interest-free loans, and RMB 131.1 billion (48.5%) as concessional loans.
During this period, China extended aid to 122 countries across Asia (30), Africa (53), Latin America and the Caribbean (22), Oceania (9), and Europe (8), as well as to 20 international and regional organizations.
Official discourse and Chinese academic discourse on foreign aid do not typically describe China as a donor country, instead using terminology like mutual assistance, joint development, and
South-South cooperation.
In China's 2011 foreign aid
white paper
A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...
, foreign aid is characterized as a model which adheres to equality and mutual benefit which avoids attaching political conditions on recipient countries.
A
RAND
The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...
published study on "China's Foreign Aid and Government Sponsored Investment" estimates the amount of both traditional aid and much more broadly defined government sponsored investment that was pledged by China in 2011 was 189.3 billion US dollars.
According to a 2017 study, described as “The most detailed study so far of Chinese aid,” by AidData, between 2000 and 2014 China gave about $75 billion, and lent about $275 billion — compared to $424 billion given by America during the same period.
A fifth of this Chinese aid, $75 billion, was in the form of grants (about equivalent to Britain's), while the rest was concessional lending at below-market interest rates.
In 2019, China provided approximately $5.9 billion in foreign aid.
Forms of aid and recipients
Official sources divide financial aid into three categories: grants, interest free loans, and concessional loans.
Concessional loans are subsidized by China's tax revenues and therefore inexpensive for borrowers.
They are provided by the Export-Import Bank of China and are used for economically productive projects and large-scale infrastructure, with interest rates below domestic benchmarks and the difference subsidized by the state. As of 2009, China had offered such loans to 76 countries, funding 325 projects, primarily in transport, communications, and energy sectors.
Grants are primarily used to support small and medium-sized social welfare projects, such as schools, hospitals, low-cost housing, and water supply systems, as well as for technical cooperation, human resource development, and humanitarian aid.
Interest-free loans are typically allocated to infrastructure and livelihood projects in developing countries with stable economic conditions, often with 20-year terms, including grace and repayment periods.
Deborah Bräutigam identifies nine types of aid from China including "medical teams, training and scholarships, humanitarian aid, youth volunteers, debt relief, budget support, turn-key or ‘complete plant’ projects
nfrastructure, factories aid-in-kind and technical assistance."
Grants or non-interest loans have funded 2,025 complete infrastructure project, from the start of aid efforts up to 2009, in the categories of farming, water distribution, conference buildings, education facilities, power supply, transport, industrial facilities, and other projects.
Perhaps the famous type of project is a football stadium, which has been referred to as
stadium diplomacy. A similar type of project that receives attention is the
construction of theatres and opera houses.
By 2019, China had provided more capital to
emerging market
An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or we ...
and
developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed Secondary sector of the economy, industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. ...
than all Western development institutions combined.
Examples
Africa
There is an African focus with about 45% of aid going to African countries in 2009, and a majority going to African countries in 2019.
A report by AidData found that as of 2014 the majority of Chinese official development assistance went to Africa. The greatest recipients of Chinese aid in sub-Saharan Africa are, in descending order, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Tanzania, Ghana, Mozambique, and Republic of Congo.
In December 2015, at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Johannesburg, President Xi Jinping announced a package of “Ten Cooperation Plans” to be implemented over three years. These included support for industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, financial cooperation, green development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction, public health, cultural exchanges, and peace and security.
In September 2018, during the FOCAC Beijing summit, China launched the “Eight Major Initiatives” to be carried out in the subsequent three years and beyond. These focused on industrial development, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, green growth, capacity building, health, civilian exchanges, and security cooperation.
In June 2020, at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against COVID-19, China reaffirmed its commitment to support African countries' pandemic response and pledged to prioritize cooperation in public health, economic recovery, and improving livelihoods. The summit emphasized building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.
In response to health crises such as Ebola, yellow fever, Zika virus, and plague, China provided emergency humanitarian aid to affected countries. Following the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, China delivered five rounds of assistance totaling $120 million to 13 African countries, deployed nearly 1,200 medical personnel and public health experts, and supported the treatment and testing of thousands of cases. China also constructed laboratories and treatment centers, including a hospital in Liberia completed in just over 20 days. The China-Sierra Leone laboratory was later designated as a national reference lab and biosafety training center by the Sierra Leonean government.
In August 2022, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China is the first-ranked Ministries of the People's Republic of China, executive department of the State Council of China, responsible for the country's Foreign relations of China, f ...
announced that it would forgive 23 interest-free loans that matured at the end of 2021 to 17 unspecified African countries.
Asia
In December 2005, China donated $20 million to the
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world.
The bank was establishe ...
for a regional poverty alleviation fund; it was China's first such fund set up at an international institution.
China's financial assistance for infrastructure development has significantly increased supply capacity in south Asia, particularly among the smaller south Asian countries, beginning in the mid-2000s.
Nepal
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
benefitted from increased Chinese aid, including Chinese financing for a railway from
Kathmandu
Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...
to
Lhasa
Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China.
Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...
.
China has been an important foreign aid contributor to
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
since the end of the
Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009.
In
Bangladesh
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
, Chinese foreign aid has also become increasingly important. China has built six major "friendship bridges" in Bangladesh, among other projects.
Because China has
trade surplus
Balance of trade is the difference between the monetary value of a nation's exports and imports of goods over a certain time period. Sometimes, trade in services is also included in the balance of trade but the official IMF definition only cons ...
es with these countries, its providing of foreign aid is viewed by the smaller south Asian countries as a means of insuring their respective bilateral relationships with China are mutually beneficial.
From the 1970s up to 2022 China has reportedly implemented more than 100 aid projects in Pacific Island countries.
From 2000 to 2014, Cambodia received 132 projects financed by Chinese aid, a greater number of projects than any other recipient of Chinese aid.
China's role in the Armenian economy has been a major force for growth and development. Since the early 2000s, China has become Armenia's largest foreign donor, providing over $2 billion in foreign aid between 2000 and 2017.
See also
*
List of development aid agencies
This is a list of development aid agencies which provide regional and international development aid or assistance, divided between national (mainly OECD countries) and international organizations. Agencies of numerous development cooperation part ...
*
List of development aid country donors
International development aid is given by many non-private donors. The first table is based on official development assistance (ODA) figures published by the OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) i ...
*
Foreign aid to China
*
Belt and Road Initiative
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI or B&R), known in China as the One Belt One Road and sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the government of China in 2013 to invest in more t ...
*
Foreign policy of China
The People's Republic of China emerged as a great power and one of the three big players in the tri-polar geopolitics (PRC-US-USSR) during the Cold War, after the Korean War in 1950–1953 and the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s, with its status ...
References
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