China intervenes to replace where USAID is gone

The effective judgment of the American agency for international development has already created openings to China to be completed.

China seems to launch new programs in several developing countries where USAID has left as analysts planned for Business Insider in February.

In Cambodia, one of the countries most affected by the withdrawal of the USAID, China has announced new financing programs for a variety of causes, including children's health care, nutrition, sanitation and land mines.

In Nepal, the officials of the Chinese Communist Party told the country leaders that Beijing was willing to provide funding, according to Annapurna Express.

Tai Wei Lim, professor at the Japanese University of Soka, told Bi that it was not surprising that China intervened so quickly to fill the shoes of the United States for specific projects.

President Donald Trump reported his intention to close USAID in advance, so China, a strategic competitor, had time to develop strategies, said LIM, specializing in the political economy of Northeast Asia.

“As China is an economic superpower with a unique highly centralized state, it can mobilize its enormous resources relatively easily in spaces where it sees opportunities to promote its goals and objectives aligned on national interests,” said LIM.

China has long focused on infrastructure and construction projects in other countries. Beijing could also turn to other sectors that China is already leading, such as agriculture and public health. This could stimulate the results of the country and its advertising efforts, said Jeremy Chan, principal analyst of the Chinese team and in Northeast Asia in Risk Consultation Eurasia Group.

Beijing is also likely to target locations in its sphere of influence, notably Southeast Asia, South Asia and Central Asia.

Chan said that even if China is on an opportunistic way of the shortcomings of certain USAID programs, there is not yet a broader Beijing trend in the big shoes in the United States.

The Chinese media have not reported higher foreign aid plans, “or triumphantalist propaganda that we expect to support a wider strategic change in the approach of Beijing with development aid,” said Chan.

He said it is unlikely that China will be able to fill most of the vacuum left by the withdrawal of the USAID and that other countries of Northeast Asia and Europe would intensify their funding where it would be suitable for their interests.

USAID spent $ 32.5 billion during the year 2024. The exact figures for foreign aid expenses in China are not entirely public, but estimates Japanese academics put the country's expenses in 2022 up to $ 7.9 billion.

“The world collapsed around us,” said last week last week during a round table in Bangkok in non -profit Asia.