Comparing US and Chinese Foreign Aid in the Era of Rising Powers

Figures & data

Table 1. Comparative descriptive framework of US and Chinese foreign aid and official finance abroad

	United States	China
Official definition of foreign aid	Economic and military aid based on the USAID Greenbook; contributions to multilateral organisations such as the United Nations (UN)	Grants (non-repayable funds), interest-free loans and concessional loans
Historical foundations and origins	Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after the Second World War; revived as a tool for enforcing US interests during the Cold War; repackaged as part of counter-terror efforts during the post-9/11 global war on terror	China first provided foreign aid to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Vietnam in the 1950s. This was extended to other developing countries after the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia. Eight principles for economic aid and technical assistance to other countries governing Chinese foreign aid were declared in 1964
Target recipients	States, multilateral organisations and civil society organisations	States
Top recipient countries	2000-2014: Afghanistan (USD 85 billion); Iraq (USD 58 billion); Israel (USD 39 billion); Egypt (USD 23 billion)	2000-2014: Cuba (USD 6.7 billion); Cote d’Ivoire (USD 4 billion); Ethiopia (USD 3.7 billion)
Deployment mechanisms in recipient countries (via private organisations? Via state institutions?)	United States Agency for International Development (USAID); federal government agencies; International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)	Newly established China International Development Cooperation Agency; currently, Chinese embassies and consulates coordinate local deployment mechanisms

Sources: USAID (2020); DFC (2020); The State Council of the People’s Republic of China (2014); Lynch et al. (2020).

Table 2. Breakdown of United States foreign aid obligations for 2019, per federal department

Agency	Foreign aid obligations
United States Agency for International Development	USD 14,525,629,062
Department of State	USD 12,552,983,626
Department of Defense	USD 8,748,460,278
Department of the Army	USD 5,198,495,509
Department of Agriculture	USD 2,024,261,972
Department of the Treasury	USD 1,556,923,150
Others	USD 2,618,324,248
Total Amount	USD 47,225,077,845

Source: USAID (2020).

Table 3. Top 5 recipient countries of United States foreign aid, 2019 obligations

Country	US foreign aid 2019 obligations
Afghanistan	USD 4,893,230,625
Israel	USD 3,308,476,548
Jordan	USD 1,723,081,097
Egypt	USD 1,467,961,287
Iraq	USD 960,178,138

Source: USAID (2020).

USAID. 2020. USAID Key Trends. Accessed 21 November 2020. https://explorer.usaid.gov/aid-trends.html.

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DFC (US International Development Finance Corporation). 2020. Who We Are. Accessed 8 July 2020. https://www.dfc.gov/who-we-are.

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The State Council of the People’s Republic of China. 2014. China’s Foreign Aid (2014). http://english.gov.cn/archive/white_paper/2014/08/23/content_281474982986592.htm.

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Lynch, L., Andersen, S., and Zhu, T. 2020. China’s Foreign Aid: A Primer for Recipient Countries, Donors, and Aid Providers. CGD Notes. Center for Global Development, 9 July. https://www.cgdev.org/publication/chinas-foreign-aid-primer-recipient-countries-donors-and-aid-providers.

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