Apples and Dragon Fruits: The Determinants of Aid and Other Forms of State Financing from China to Africa
Axel Dreher, Andreas Fuchs, Bradley Parks, Austin M. Strange and Michael J. Tierney
Published in: International Studies Quarterly 62(1): 182-194, March 2018
Abstract
Chinese “aid” is a lightning rod for criticism. Policymakers, journalists, and public intellectuals claim that Beijing is using its largesse to cement alliances with political leaders, secure access to natural resources, and create exclusive commercial opportunities for Chinese firms—all at the expense of citizens living in developing countries. We argue that much of the controversy about Chinese “aid” results from a failure to distinguish between China’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) and more commercially-oriented sources and types of state financing. Using a new database on China’s official financing commitments to Africa from 2000-2013, we find the allocation of Chinese ODA to be driven primarily by foreign policy considerations, while economic interests better explain the distribution of less concessional forms of Chinese official financing. Our results suggest Beijing’s motives may not be substantially different from those shaping the allocation of Western official finance. Our data and findings also address the need for better measures of an increasingly diverse set of non-Western financial activities that are neither well understood nor systematically tracked by the Western-led regime for international development finance.
Database
Published paper
Supplementary information
Working paper (October 2016)
Working paper (October 2015)
Presentations at conferences and workshops
In the media (newspapers, blogs)
See also
[Thanks to Mike Tierney for the photo!]
Axel Dreher, Andreas Fuchs, Bradley Parks, Austin M. Strange and Michael J. Tierney
Published in: International Studies Quarterly 62(1): 182-194, March 2018
Abstract
Chinese “aid” is a lightning rod for criticism. Policymakers, journalists, and public intellectuals claim that Beijing is using its largesse to cement alliances with political leaders, secure access to natural resources, and create exclusive commercial opportunities for Chinese firms—all at the expense of citizens living in developing countries. We argue that much of the controversy about Chinese “aid” results from a failure to distinguish between China’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) and more commercially-oriented sources and types of state financing. Using a new database on China’s official financing commitments to Africa from 2000-2013, we find the allocation of Chinese ODA to be driven primarily by foreign policy considerations, while economic interests better explain the distribution of less concessional forms of Chinese official financing. Our results suggest Beijing’s motives may not be substantially different from those shaping the allocation of Western official finance. Our data and findings also address the need for better measures of an increasingly diverse set of non-Western financial activities that are neither well understood nor systematically tracked by the Western-led regime for international development finance.
Database
Published paper
Supplementary information
Working paper (October 2016)
Working paper (October 2015)
Presentations at conferences and workshops
- Lecture of the School of International Relations & Public Affairs, Fudan University, Shanghai, China (05/2016)
- Association of Chinese Political Studies Annual Meeting, Peking University, China (06/2015)
- Chinese Overseas Finance Conference, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, DC, USA (04/2015)
- CSAE “Economic Development in Africa” Conference, Oxford University, UK (03/2015)
- International Conference "Approaches and Implementation of Asian and European Official Development Assistance (ODA)", Catholic Louvain University, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium (02/2015)
- International Economic Policy Research Seminar & AFRASO Lecture, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany (01/2015)
- Workshop "South-South Development Cooperation: Chances and Challenges for the International Aid Architecture", Heidelberg University, Germany (09/2014)
- Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, USA (08/2014)
- East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore (02/2014)
In the media (newspapers, blogs)
- Council on Foreign Relations
- devex
- Foreign Affairs
- The Economist (daily chart)
- The Economist (print) (1)
- The Economist (print) (2)
- Vita (in Italian)
See also
[Thanks to Mike Tierney for the photo!]
