A Norm-Taker or a Norm-Maker? Chinese aid in Southeast Asia

Abstract

As China expands its development assistance in Southeast Asia, is Chinese aid beginning to emulate international norms and practices or sustaining its own distinct approach to development assistance? This essay argues that China's socialization into international norms varies with the thickness of the institutional environment. In Laos and Cambodia, China's enhanced collaboration with international consortia, improved transparency, and project diversity point to nascent socialization. China's aid to Myanmar, however, remains opaque and largely self-interested. At the regional level, Beijing is bolstering its influence over the norms and practices of regional developmental institutions.

Notes

*James Reilly is Lecturer in Northeast Asian Politics at the University of Sydney, and the author of Strong Society, Smart State: The Rise of Public Opinion in China's Japan Policy (Columbia University Press, 2012). His articles have appeared in Asian Survey, China: An International Journal, Modern Asian Studies, Survival, and Washington Quarterly. An earlier version of this article was presented at the ‘Workshop on the Rise of China and its Impact on Asia–Pacific’, at Deakin University, 5 July 2010. The author would like to thank all workshop participants for helpful comments, and Li Junyang for superb research assistance. The author can be reached by [email protected].

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^2. While China does not use the term ODA, I use it here to refer to development assistance generally. For an overview of Chinese aid see: Deborah Bräutigam, The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

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^5. Interviews with international aid agencies (Beijing, January 2011).

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^16. For a similar set of norms, see: Carol Lancaster, ‘The new face of development’, Current History, (January 2008), pp. 36–40.

^17. China signed the Paris Declaration, but later clarified that it did so as an aid recipient, not a donor: Active with the People's Republic of China (OECD Centre for Cooperation with Non-Members, February 2010), p. 41, available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/19/49/44751373.pdf (accessed 5 January 2011).

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^35. The DAC defines ODA as the transfers of cash, commodities, or services from official state agencies to developing countries, multilateral development agencies, and NGOs; including grants, face value of zero-interest loans, interest rate subsidy for concessional loans, and training program expenses. See: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/21/21/34086975.pdf (accessed 10 July 2010).

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^42. For China's debt forgiveness data, see: China's Foreign Aid, p. 8.

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^45. David Halloran Lumsdaine, Moral Vision in International Politics: The Foreign Aid Regime (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993).

^46. For Japan, see: Steven W. Hook and Guang Zhang, ‘Japan's aid policy since the Cold War: rhetoric and reality’, Asian Survey 38(11), (1998), pp. 1051–1066.

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^50. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith, ‘A political economy of aid’, International Organization 63(2), (2009), p. 310.

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^52. Drawn from CIA World Factbook, Cambodia; The Economist Intelligence Unit Country Report, Cambodia.

^53. Jeff Rutherford, Kate Lazarus and Shawn Kelley, Rethinking Investments in Natural Resources: China's Emerging Role in the Mekong Region (Phnom Penh, Copenhagen, and Winnipeg: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, WWF, and IISD, 2008), p. 41.

^54. ‘China invests heavily in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos’, The Nation (Thailand), (3 December 2007).

^55. See also: Chap Sotharitho, ‘Trade, FDI, and ODA between Cambodia and China/Japan/Korea’, in Mitsuhiro Kagami, ed., Japan and Korea with the Mekong River Basin Countries (Bangkok: Bangkok Research Center, 2010), pp. 10–44; and Zhu Zhenming, ‘China's foreign economic cooperation for CLMV: contact engineering in CLMV’, in Kagami, ed., Japan and Korea with the Mekong River Basin Countries, pp. 89–90.

^56. Carl Middleton, ‘Building friendships, building dams’, World Rivers Review, (17 September 2007).

^57. Carl Middleton, ‘Building friendships, building dams’, World Rivers Review, (17 September 2007)

^58. International Rivers, Cambodia: Hydropower Projects Lack Transparency, Could Displace Thousands, Press Release (27 August 2008).

^59. ‘China provides aid to Cambodia, thanks it for deporting Muslim asylum-seekers’, The Canadian Press, (22 December 2009).

^60. ‘Declaration by the Royal Government of Cambodia and Development Partners on Enhancing Aid Effectiveness’, Phnom Penh, October 2006), available at: http://www.cdccrdb.gov.kh/cdc/aid_management/Declaration%20on%20Aid%20Effectiveness%20in%20Cambodia%20(Oct%202006).pdf (accessed 10 June 2010).

^61. Ker Munthit, ‘Donor's pledge $689 million in aid for Cambodia’, Associated Press Newswires, (20 June 2007).

^62. Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report: Cambodia.

^63. Available at: http://cdc.khmer.biz/projectlist/project_list_updated.asp?OtherDonor = 29&status = 0&UpdateFrom = 1/1/2010&updateto = 8/27/2010 (accessed 10 August 2010).

^64. ‘China ranks No. 2 in aiding Cambodia's town, sub-district elections’, BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific, (12 October 2006).

^65. Drawn from CIA World Factbook, Laos; The Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report: Laos.

^66. ‘China becomes largest investor in Laos’, Vientiane Times, (28 May 2008).

^67. Rutherford et al., Rethinking Investments in Natural Resources.

^68. CIA World Factbook; Economist Intelligence Unit Country Report.

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^70. Asian Development Bank, Toward Sustainable and Balanced Development: Strategy and Action Plan for the Greater Mekong Subregion North–South Economic Corridor (Mandaluyong City, Philippines, 2010).

^71. Zhu Zhenming, ‘China's foreign economic cooperation for CLMV’, p. 23.

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^74. For more information on the round table process, see: http://www.rtm.org.la/ (accessed 13 July 2010).

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^76. See their respective reports at: http://www.swganr.org/index.php?option = com_content&view = category&layout = blog&id = 54&Itemid = 72; and at: http://www.rtm.org.la/Publications%20and%20meeting%20records%20by%20Sector%20Working%20Groups.php#infrastructure (both accessed 12 July 2010).

^77. I use the name Myanmar in line with the practice of the UN and most countries outside North America and Europe. This is not a political statement or a judgment on the right of the military regime to change the name of the country.

^78. Drawn from: CIA World Factbook, Burma; Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report: Myanmar.

^79. Maung Aung Myoe, Sino-Myanmar Economic Relations since 1988, Asia Research Institute Working Paper No. 86 (Singapore: National University of Singapore, 2007), p. 66.

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^82. Myoe, Sino-Myanmar Economic Relations since 1988, p. 19. All Chinese Yuan (CNY) figures have been converted to US dollars, including in Table 7, by using the average annual exchange rate for the relevant year. Calculated from: http://www.oanda.com/currency/average (accessed 10 August 2010).

^83. Opacity on both sides ‘makes it impossible to account for the full extent of China's economic assistance and investments in Myanmar’. International Crisis Group, ‘China's Myanmar dilemma’, Asia Report no. 177, (14 September 2009), p. 17.

^84. Myoe, Sino-Myanmar Economic Relations since 1988.

^85. Myoe, Sino-Myanmar Economic Relations since 1988, p. 22. This was apparently a preferential buyer's credit, which would not be considered ODA under OECD-DAC standards, however, since the loan was provided at (unspecified) subsidized rates, it appears that both Myanmar and China considered it aid.

^86. Myoe, Sino-Myanmar Economic Relations since 1988, p. 38.

^87. International Crisis Group, ‘China's Myanmar dilemma’, p. 19.

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^102. The Accra Agenda, p. 18. For praise of Beijing's insistence on this point as an ‘important contribution to harmony and peaceful coexistence in international society’, see: Wang Wei and Zhu Huibo, ‘Jianzhe gaige kaifang yilai de zhongguo duiwai yuanzhu’ [‘Analysis of Chinese foreign aid since the reform and opening up’], Mao Zedong Deng Xiaoping lilun yanjiu [Research on Mao Zedong–Deng Xiaoping Theory] 8, (2008), p. 43.

^104. Interview (Beijing, January 2011).

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