China will use foreign aid for strategic aims

Significance

It consolidates and formalises a shift that has been underway, using examples of recent practice to present China’s new approach. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is presented as a key part of China’s development policy, alongside the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Impacts

• Trilateral cooperation with developed country aid donors is affirmed, but China is unlikely to contribute money.
• A new interest in cooperating on ‘governance’ suggests a willingness to support authoritarianism overseas.
• The distinctions between aid, economic diplomacy and geostrategic competition will remain blurred, and may become more so.