China’s Multilateral aid engagement: From initial to basic and active participation
Summary:
Although still limited in many ways, China is extending its multilateral aid and development engagement, upping its contributions and positions within the UN development system, proposing and resourcing new initiatives, and establishing new international organisations. Through the lenses of Chinese policy and new institutionalism theory perspectives, this chapter zooms in on the multilateral features of Chinese development aid. It maps how it has evolved and considers why China engages in multilateral aid. This chapter draws a timeline, starting with initial participation in the late 1970s and continuing with basic and maturing participation in the early 2000s, followed by a more active, albeit in many ways limited, still, participation from around 2010. Summarising China’s current multilateral aid engagement, this chapter points to a mixed picture, reflecting Chinese policy traditions and Beijing’s increasingly tricky navigation between growing superpower muscles and holding on to a developing country status.
- Published year: 2026
- Full version: Read here
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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003485025
- Publisher: Routledge
- Page count: 22
- Language: English
- Pages: 93 - 115
Written by
Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr
Senior Research Fellow
Ed.
Elling Tjønneland
CMI