China’s Foreign Aid

Book excerpt: This book analyzes the changes in and development of China’s Foreign Aid Policy and Mechanisms over the past 60 years. It offers readers a thorough introduction to China’s Aid to Africa; its Aid to Southeast Asian Countries; its Aid Policy Toward Central Asian Countries; and its Aid to Latin America and the Caribbean Region, as well as their respective influence. Combining field research and surveys at the grass-roots level, the book argues that China’s foreign aid policy is intended to help other countries and has changed the strategic pattern of Western countries imposing blockades on New China, and has thus played a key role in expanding and strengthening China’s economic and political ties with many developing countries, restoring its legitimate seat in the United Nations and promoting the cause of cooperation with regard to international development. Focusing on concrete examples rather than abstruse theories, the book further argues that foreign aid requires practical policies, suitable expertise and technologies; at the same time, international development – a field largely overlooked by scholars of international relations – can offer profound principles to shape international relations and foreign aid.