{
"authors": [
"Tang Xiaoyang"
],
"type": "other",
"centerAffiliationAll": "",
"centers": [
"Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
"Carnegie China"
],
"collections": [
"China and the Developing World",
"China’s Foreign Relations",
"Carnegie China Commentaries"
],
"englishNewsletterAll": "",
"nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
"primaryCenter": "Carnegie China",
"programAffiliation": "",
"programs": [],
"projects": [],
"regions": [
"East Asia",
"China"
],
"topics": [
"Economy",
"Foreign Policy"
]
}
Source: Getty
Historically, China has forged its own distinctive foreign aid practices. In March 2018, Beijing established the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) to integrate and streamline its development aid programs.
Historically, China has forged its own distinctive foreign aid practices. Beijing combines aid with commercial-oriented activities and strives to respond flexibly to varied economic and developmental needs in diverse sociopolitical contexts, based on China’s own experience as a developing country. As its foreign aid programs have matured, Beijing has modified its practices and sometimes has solicited advice from members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. China’s approach to aid has become a highly salient topic as the country’s stature as a provider of economic assistance has grown.
Yet China’s development aid system was long highly decentralized, with various ministries handling different aspects of this portfolio. In March 2018, Beijing established the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) to integrate and streamline its development aid programs. The CIDCA has assumed many foreign aid coordination duties from other state organs, although the agency is still finding its footing, and some details remain unclear.
To foster greater understanding of the CIDCA’s significance, this series of four articles outlines the agency’s position and function within China’s foreign aid bureaucracy at present and in the years ahead.
This series resulted from a workshop on Chinese international development aid hosted by the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy. The center is grateful to The Rockefeller Foundation for the support that made this series possible.
Tang Xiaoyang
Former Resident Scholar and Deputy Director, Carnegie-Tsinghua Center; Chair and Professor, Department of International Relations, Tsinghua University
Tang Xiaoyang is the chair and a professor in the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University. He was a resident scholar and the deputy director at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center until June 2020.
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
China’s banking crisis in the 2000s was resolved by transferring the costs to households through financial repression—a decision that recapitalized the banks while exacerbating the structural imbalances that continue to shape the Chinese economy today.
Michael Pettis
Chinese biotech companies have been on the receiving end of U.S. economic coercion. Yet their responses have differed significantly because firm and state interests are not uniformly aligned. For Washington, treating all Chinese tech firms the same, irrespective of their actual interests, risks pushing them farther into Beijing’s corner.
Xue Gong
China’s latest energy plan explicitly calls for integrating data centers into the electricity system, particularly connecting them to green energy. It appears Beijing wants to use compute as a source of domestic demand to absorb renewables excess capacity.
Damien Ma
But their "principal to principal" model will only be as effective as the political strength of each leader back home.
Damien Ma
U.S. unpredictability has allowed China to capitalize on its positioning as the “responsible great power”. Paradoxically, the more China wins the perception game, the more likely expectations will rise for Beijing to deliver not just words but to demonstrate with its deeds.
Chong Ja Ian