Category: Aid
Is Europe Facing a “Lost Decade” Across the Global South?
By Lukas Fiala With Europe scrambling to adjust to a world in rapid transition, two key events will shape the continent’s ability to sustain competition with China across the Global South. The first was exemplified by Germany’s election last Sunday, which ...
U.S. Aid Freeze Creates New Opening for China in the South Pacific
Donald Trump's foreign aid freeze has halted vital projects in the South Pacific, aid workers, and analysts say, risking lives and hurting U.S. efforts to woo the region. Disaster-prone, isolated, and threatened by rising seas, tropical Pacific island states are some ...
China Provides Funding for Cambodian Demining as USAID Retreats
The Chinese government will give $4.4 million to advance the clearance of landmines in Cambodia. This follows the freeze in USAID funding dedicated to removing landmines left from the Vietnam War era. Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.
Gutting Aid, U.S. Cedes Soft Power Game to China
By Shaun Tandon When President Donald Trump froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid, Cambodia was forced to suspend workers removing dangerous mines from the country -- until China stepped in with the necessary funding. In ...
As U.S. Foreign Assistance Retreats, Will China Step In?
A widely shared Politico article argued on Monday that “China is quickly making moves to fill in gaps left behind by the Trump administration’s abrupt moves to almost entirely halt and wind down USAID operations worldwide, from the Indo-Pacific to South America.”
Outspoken China Hawk Poised to Become Donald Trump’s New Envoy to South Africa
With U.S.-South Africa ties on the verge of total collapse following President Donald Trump's suspension of aid and his offer to resettle white South Africans as refugees, attention is now shifting to who Washington will send to Pretoria as its next ambassador. ...
In Freezing Foreign Aid, the U.S. Leaves People to Die – and Allows China to Come to the Rescue
By Melissa Conley Tyler One of the executive orders U.S. President Donald Trump signed the day he was inaugurated was a 90-day pause in U.S. foreign development assistance. The U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, ...
Africa, China, and Trump’s World-Spanning Gamble on Foreign Assistance
The Trump administration’s decision to halt and review U.S. foreign assistance to developing countries instantaneously turned the United States from many countries’ biggest helper into their biggest problem. In the process, he kicked off a massive experiment. The research question ...
U.S. Aid Freeze Creates New Opening for China in Africa
The Trump administration's decision to issue a 90-day freeze on most foreign assistance worldwide will have a disproportionate impact on a number of African countries that rely heavily on U.S. aid. The State Department's "stop-work" ...
China Nearly Done With Its Aid Program to Bring Satellite TV to 10,000 Rural Communities Across Africa
It's been almost ten years since Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled a plan at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in Johannesburg to install satellite television dishes in 10,000 rural African communities. Now, nine years later, only a few hundred installations are left.
Putting Geopolitical Competition on Display: Sierra Leonian President Visits China
By Lucas Engel On Saturday, March 2, 2024, Julius Maada Bio, the President of Sierra Leone, returned from China, marking the end of the year’s first visit to China by an African head of state.
China Announces Double-Digit Budget Increase for Diplomacy
China is sharply increasing its budget for diplomacy and influence-building around the world after three years of retreat from the world stage. The announcement of a 12.2% increase follows Foreign Minister Qin Gang’s recent comment that “Chinese ...