Banking on Beijing
The Aims and Impacts of China's Overseas Development Program

Explains China's transformation from 'benefactor' to 'banker' in its relationship with developing countries and traces the impacts of this change.

Axel Dreher (Author), Andreas Fuchs (Author), Bradley Parks (Author), Austin Strange (Author), Michael J. Tierney (Author)

9781108474108, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 May 2022

312 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.71 kg

'… this book is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the realities of China's overseas development programme and how it may evolve in the future.' Lila Rosenzweig, International Affairs

China is now the lender of first resort for much of the developing world, but Beijing has fueled speculation among policymakers, scholars, and journalists by shrouding its grant-giving and lending activities in secrecy. Introducing a systematic and transparent method of tracking Chinese development projects around the world, this book explains Beijing's motives and analyzes the intended and unintended effects of its overseas investments. Whereas China almost exclusively provided aid during the twentieth century, its twenty-first century transition from 'benefactor' to 'banker' has had far-reaching impacts in low-income and middle-income countries that are not widely understood. Its use of debt rather than aid to bankroll big-ticket infrastructure projects creates new opportunities for developing countries to achieve rapid socio-economic gains, but it has also introduced major risks, such as corruption, political capture, and conflict. This book will be of interest to policymakers, students and scholars of international political economy, Chinese politics and foreign policy, economic development, and international relations.

1. Why do we know so little about the aims and impacts of China's overseas development program?
2. The journey to global creditor: a brief history of Chinese development finance
3. Counting and comparing apples and dragon fruits
4. Follow the money: where does Chinese government funding go?
5. Apples and dragon fruits: how does China allocate aid and credit across countries?
6. Aid à la carte: the subnational distribution of Chinese development finance
7. Paving the way to growth and development? The socioeconomic impacts of Chinese development projects
8. Poisonous dragon fruits? The side effects of Chinese development finance
9. Banking on the belt and road: the future of global development finance.

Subject Areas: Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], International economics [KCL], International relations [JPS]