With US poised to slash foreign aid, China in pole position to become world’s biggest donor
Research highlights different approaches to spending as Beijing favours projects that support its commercial interests rather than development
China could soon surpass the United States to become the world’s biggest aid donor in the developing world, according to US-based researchers.
Between 2000 and 2014, China gave almost US$354.4 billion in aid and other forms of support to 140 countries, according to research published on Wednesday by AidData, a US-based project that tracks flows of development assistance.
The US spent a corresponding US$394.6 billion in the same period.
“A striking finding is that China and the US are effectively spending rivals in the broader definition of aid. However, the composition differences in their portfolios are big,” Bradley Parks, one of the five researchers on the project, said.
The report was produced by researchers from Heidelberg University in Germany, and Harvard University and the College of William and Mary in the United States.