Chinese Views on China’s Role in International Development Assistance

China’s increasing role as a provider of overseas aid is the subject of considerable debate both within and outside of China. However, despite research activity examining how Chinese aid is materialised, very little is actually known about why Chinese aid projects are developed or implemented the way they are. Although recent indications suggest the Chinese government is increasingly willing to be more open about overseas aid, for example, the release of the first White Paper on Foreign Aid in 2011, external observers remain largely unaware of the values, goals and motivations behind Chinese aid projects. Alongside this lack of information, non-Chinese analyses tend to be founded on a Realist approach to understanding international relations in which a ‘rising power’ such as China automatically constitutes a threat to existing power relations. As a result, many scholars conclude that China’s aid is part of a strategic quest to further its own geopolitical ends. This paper provides insights into the contentious topic of the drivers behind Chinese overseas development assistance. It finds that Chinese elites in the international development sphere do not share the views prevalent in Western international relations discourse about the international system and China’s role within it. This article argues that exploring Chinese development actors’ and commentators’ conceptions of what development means, along with their views on China’s role and obligations within the international system, allows a better understanding of the motivations behind Chinese aid, and a re-examination of some of the misconceptions around Chinese aid as a tool of Chinese geopolitical strategy.

中國在國際發展援助中作用的中方視點

中國日益顯著的海外援助提供者角色在國內外引起了相當多的爭論。儘管有研究攷察中國外援的具體實施，我們對中國外援項目的目的及其為何採取某種實施方式的內在原因卻知之甚少。雖然最近有跡象表明中國政府的海外援助意願越來越開放，例如, 2011中國發佈了第一個關於外援的白皮書，國外觀察者仍然在很大程度上對中國外援項目的價值、目標和動機缺乏了解。除了信息的缺乏之外，國外的分析往往是根植於現實主義方法對國際關係的理解之上，即認為象中國這樣崛起的勢力理所當然地會對既有的權力關係構成威脅。許多學者因此認為中國的外援是實現其地緣政治戰略任務的一部分。通過攷察中國海外援助背後的動力，本文試圖對這一具有爭議的議題有所貢獻。本文發現，國際發展領域中的中國精英不贊同盛行於西方國際關係話語中的關於國際體系及中國在其中的角色的分析。本文認為，通過探索中國發展促進者及評論家對發展意義的理解以其對中國在國際體系中扮演的角色和義務的認識，我們可以更好地了解中國外援背後的動機。而這也促使我們重新檢討中國外援祗是中國地緣政治戰略的工具這一誤讀。

Translated from English by Xin Huang