US and European policymakers are no longer taking a “wait and see” position on China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Late last year, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis challenged the fundamental premise of BRI, noting that “there are...

This article investigates whether China’s foreign aid is particularly prone to capture by political leaders of aid-receiving countries. We examine whe

Chinese aid comes with few strings attached, allowing recipient country leaders to use it for domestic political purposes. The vulnerability of Chinese

China’s rapidly growing economic activities are visible across the African continent in its bilateral trade, investment overseas, development aid activities, and migratory pattern. China has, for example, quickly evolved from being an aid recipient...

A Rare Look into 100 Debt Contracts With Foreign Governments Through a systematic search of debt information management systems, official registers and

Chinese aid comes with few strings attached, allowing recipient country leaders to use it for domestic political purposes. The vulnerability of Chinese aid to political capture has prompted speculation that it may be economically ineffective, or even...

This paper introduces a new dataset of official financing — including foreign aid and other forms of concessional and non-concessional state financing

China and India increasingly provide aid and credit to developing countries. This paper explores whether India uses these financial instruments to compete for geopolitical and commercial influence with China (and vice versa). To do so, we build a new...