"Chinese development finance and public opinion" - by CWP alum Austin Strange
Foreign aid is often used as a tool by donors to shape public perceptions in developing countries. Yet there is little systematic evidence on whether and to what extent international development finance increases popular support for donor governments. This column presents research showing that Chinese development projects have increased popular support for the Chinese government in the Global South. It highlights that these gains were not uniform across all countries, but instead concentrated in ‘high-value’ targets for Beijing.
As relations between China and the US and other Western democracies deteriorate, the Global South is becoming an increasingly important arena for great power competition. Policymakers in Washington, London, and Brussels have repeatedly sounded alarm bells regarding the nature, motives, and effects of Chinese aid and lending in developing countries (Reinhart et al. 2020, Tierney et al. 2019, Dreher and Fuchs 2012). During an official visit in August 2023, for instance, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned his Tongan counterparts of China’s “problematic behaviour” including “predatory economic activities” and “investments that are done in a way that can actually undermine good governance and promote corruption” (US Department of State 2023). His comments reflect a broader struggle between the US and China to effectively control narratives about their development finance and win popular support across Asia, Africa, and other developing regions.
- Lukas Wellner , Axel Dreher , Andreas Fuchs , Bradley Parks , Austin Strange 2 Oct 2023
- https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/chinese-development-finance-and-public-opinion
Austin Strange is an Assistant Professor of International Relations in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong. His research examines China’s contemporary and historical roles in the world economy and global development. He is co-author of Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China’s Overseas Development Program (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and has recently published articles in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Studies in Comparative International Development, International Studies Quarterly, and Journal of Conflict Resolution. Austin earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University, M.A. from Zhejiang University, and a B.A. from William & Mary. He was previously a fellow at the Wilson Center and the Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program.
Photo Credit: By Chainwit. - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=131793735
