Chinese foreign aid
[2] 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".
[4]: 8 During the Mao era, China focused on providing aid to other countries in support of socialist and anti-imperialist causes.
[9] 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.
[4]: 8 China also received increased amounts of development finance, including from Japan and the World Bank, and became a net recipient of foreign aid.
[4]: 8 Following the Cold War, China's participation in foreign aid was increasingly motivated by economic interests, especially resource security.
[11]: 115 Rather than being a "donor", China sees itself as working within a framework of South-South cooperation:[3] China adheres to the principles of not imposing any political conditions, not interfering in the internal affairs of the recipient countries and fully respecting their right to independently choosing their own paths and models of development.
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.
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.
[13][2] A 2017 study by AidData, a research lab at the College of William & Mary, found that China's ODA-like aid was effective at producing economic growth in recipient countries.
[11]: 73 The National Development and Reform Commission coordinates handles aid on climate cooperation issues.
[16] 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.
[11]: 74 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 [infrastructure, factories], aid-in-kind and technical assistance.
"[19] 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.
[24] 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.
[6]: 170 In August 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China announced that it would forgive 23 interest-free loans that matured at the end of 2021 to 17 unspecified African countries.
