As I see it | Can reshuffle help Beijing position its foreign aid more effectively?
- Appointing a career diplomat to lead the agency set up to coordinate the aid system could be the latest attempt to address an image problem
- Beijing faces ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ tag, scepticism about definition of aid and controversies over whether recipients back it on issues such as Taiwan and Tibet
For years many people have argued Beijing needs a reform of its foreign aid system to bolster its image as a responsible global power in the face of growing criticism over the lack of transparency and accountability in its aid projects.
The CIDCA was created in 2018 in a government overhaul soon after Xi Jinping scrapped the presidential term limit and the belt and road, his signature foreign policy, was enshrined in the constitutions of the country and the Communist Party. Tasking a body with coordinating China’s fragmented aid system, involving over 30 government agencies, was hailed as a breakthrough after years of inter-department wrangling.
The rivalry between China’s foreign and commerce ministries over control of aid policy and projects is an open secret. It has often led to tensions in overseas missions between the former’s ambassadors and the commerce ministry’s economic and commercial counsellors.
On the surface it’s just another internal tug of war, but it actually underlines a foreign policy dilemma, over how to prioritise China’s economic interests and broader foreign policy goals.
The foreign ministry clearly has an upper hand after its commerce counterpart, which used to be in effective control of aid programmes, failed to block setting up the new agency. Luo’s appointment last week and the fact that he will report to Foreign Minister Wang Yi mirror a hierarchical shift.