Western Aid Strategies: Power Politics and consequences for Global South
Despite the fact that the purpose of foreign assistance is to assist economically disadvantaged nations in increasing their prosperity, it is frequently provided in conjunction with securing imperatives of foreign policy as well as based solely on need.
Focusing on how strong nations utilize monetary guides to accomplish their own essential objectives figures out the dull effect of unfamiliar help inside beneficiary nations.
Although China is a new donor, it has emerged as a significant source of much-needed financial assistance for numerous cash-strapped nations. Other powerful nations, particularly the United States, which is attempting to contain China’s growing influence, are now concerned about the increased reliance on Chinese aid in poorer regions of Africa and Asia.
China’s use of “debt diplomacy” to influence poorer countries is criticized by American policymakers. However, the political use of aid has been around for a long time and is frequently utilized by the United States as a tool for its own foreign policy. Even though the United States of America would rather give loans to poorer nations than grants, it readily uses grants to advance its own national interests. The World Bank and IMF, which provide conditional loans to implement market-based reforms that enable Western nations to continue extracting labor and raw materials from debt-ridden postcolonial states, are supported by the United States.
China itself received aid in the past. China, on the other hand, has become a significant creditor nation in the last decade or so. China lends money primarily to cash-strapped nations in the global south at a rate that can now match aid from Western donors. AidData, a US-based research institute, found that by 2021, China had given poorer nations well over $800 billion. China is suspected of providing “hidden debts,” which do not appear on official balance sheets, in addition to official loans.
There has been a lot of speculation and concern about the opacity of Chinese lending practices as a result of China’s sudden rise to prominence as a major source of development finance. There is a lack of public information regarding China’s loan negotiation process and the specific terms of its loans.
Western academics contend that the Chinese model of development views social stability as essential to progress. As a result, it is believed that China is willing to tolerate repressive measures in order to promote general prosperity. China is said to have adopted this model at home, and it appears that it is now exporting it to other countries.
While China may not hesitate to assist authoritarian regimes, it is important to remember that numerous Western nations have utilized strategies similar to this one to protect their own vested interests. Since the end of the Cold War, American funding has allowed many despotic rulers and military regimes to remain in power. In addition, while Western development models emphasize participation and respect for human rights, many market-driven growth strategies promoted by Western-dominated international development agencies are easily manipulated by elites and frequently encourage growth at the expense of increasing inequality.
China is now using development aid for political purposes, just like Western nations do. There is an apparent relationship between’s more unfortunate nations’ reliance on Chinese guidance and their help for China on petulant issues, for example, the Taiwan debate or the way things are managing fretfulness in Xinjiang. Chinese-subsidized advancement projects likewise give deficient open doors to nearby networks. Even militant and insurgent groups have branded China as an imperialist power as a result of this top-down approach to aid distribution, and they are increasingly targeting China’s economic investments abroad, including in Pakistan.
Therefore, despite the fact that China may have provided the global south with an alternative source of development financing, the Chinese development aid model has not yet proven to be superior to Western models.
