{"id":161598,"date":"2013-04-30T19:24:35","date_gmt":"2013-04-30T19:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/6-surprising-facts-about-chinese-aid-to-africa\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T22:10:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:10:39","slug":"6-surprising-facts-about-chinese-aid-to-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/6-surprising-facts-about-chinese-aid-to-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Surprising facts about Chinese aid to Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s undeniable. China has a huge presence in Africa. Many Africans can point out Chinese-funded buildings, roads and mines, and it\u2019s not uncommon to see more than a few Chinese faces around construction projects and efforts across the development sector. As the country moves toward the up and up both economically and as a world superpower, so will its aid to the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this critical juncture, the world wants to know: How much aid does China give Africa? Does it help or hurt aid from the United States and other Western donors?<\/strong> It\u2019s been hard to tell, since China releases little information, outside estimates vary widely, and their aid doesn\u2019t come in the form of traditional OECD-type assistance. Plus, there aren\u2019t any mechanisms to accurately measure aid from non-DAC countries. Perhaps until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help answer these questions, an organization called AidData compiled a database of thousands of media reports on Chinese-backed projects in Africa from 2000 to 2011. The database includes information on 1,673 projects in 51 African countries and on $75 billion in commitments of official finance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what they discovered: official development finance to Africa seems to be roughly similar in size to the finance provided by the US. <\/strong>And that \u2013 a pretty significant amount \u2013 is just from the official numbers. According to Brad Parks, the co-executive director of AidData, it\u2019s kind of impossible to give an exact number, since so much aid comes in the form of labor, expertise and other kinds of non-official aid like in-kind donations, making it really hard to measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before you make your assumptions about Chinese aid,<\/strong> here\u2019s some surprising facts on Chinese aid from the Center for Global Development\u2019s new report on the findings from AidData, \u201cChina\u2019s Development Finance to Africa: A Media-Based Approach to Data Collection,\u201d which you can access here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

1. Chinese aid to Africa is not new <\/strong>
Although this may be the first time you are hearing about Chinese aid to Africa, it\u2019s not new. China has been giving aid to Africa since 1956.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The majority of Chinese aid from the past decade, among other things, go toward transport and storage, energy generation and supply and communications.
<\/strong>Some Africans say that the Chinese, unlike donors in the West, have a knack for knowing what Africans really need \u2013 including vital infrastructure projects like these. According to economist Yan Wang from Peking University, China accounts for more than 30 percent of total value of infrastructure projects in Africa, higher than other donors. And African governments, businesses, and citizens are all clamoring for infrastructure investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Women, food aid and education rank as some of the lowest priorities for Chinese donors<\/strong>
No explanation needed here, but experts at AidData suggest that it may be due to the fact that these are major focus areas for Western donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Ghana, Nigeria and Sudan are the biggest recipients of Chinese aid<\/strong>
Those countries received about a quarter of a trillion dollars in the past 10 years. Most of the projects are going toward \u2013 surprise, surprise \u2013 infrastructure, like oil pipelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 5. Chinese aid takes a very different \u201cform\u201d than traditional Western aid <\/strong>
Not necessarily a bad thing, just different. These forms (or \u201cunofficial finance\u201d, as the report calls it) include foreign direct investment without state involvement and NGO aid. This makes it hard for experts, both in the West and in China, to track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. There\u2019s a lot of assumptions about Chinese aid \u2013 it\u2019s hard to say whether they\u2019re true.<\/strong>
Many people are saying that China is giving to Africa just because they want access to their natural resources, don\u2019t care about environmental or labor standards, and funding projects that have a weak link to growth. But the Center for Global Development encourages people to do their research when making these claims. Why? Because there\u2019s no robust evidence to prove these points. Read up on it in Section 3<\/a> in the report.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

AidData\u2019s database<\/a> is the first step in increasing transparency on Chinese aid to Africa \u2013 but it is by no means a completed project. Hopefully, thanks to the help of crowdsourcing, it will help measure aid from other emerging G20 countries like India, South Korea and South Africa, which like China, do not give aid through traditional DAC standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kudos to AidData for creating this database, and we\u2019re excited to learn more insights on aid from new donors. And don\u2019t forget to read CGD\u2019s report here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As China moves toward the up and up both economically and as a world superpower, so will its aid to the continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"162936,161621,161622,161623,161624,161625","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"contributor":[455],"one_content_audience":[],"one_content_type":[],"one_content_tone":[],"class_list":["post-161598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","contributor-malaka-gharib"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n6 Surprising facts about Chinese aid to Africa - ONE.org US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/6-surprising-facts-about-chinese-aid-to-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"6 Surprising facts about Chinese aid to Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s undeniable. 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