Debunking Myths about China: The Determinants of China’s Official Financing to the Pacific

Abstract

With China rapidly expanding its aid programme in the Pacific Islands region, there is a growing concern among established powers about China's sway over the aid-dependent Pacific Island states. Systematic studies of China's development finance to the small island countries are, however, rare and generally limited to mapping Chinese finance flows in the Pacific. This study seeks to contribute to the literature on China's development efforts in the Pacific Islands region. Drawing on project-level data from AidData for the period 2000-2014, this paper disaggregates China's official financing into its constituent parts and systematically explores the determinants of China's Official Development Assistance (ODA) and its commercially-oriented finance flows to the Pacific. The panel data analysis finds that, contrary to popular belief, China does not reward voting compliance in the United Nations nor is its allocation of financing to the Pacific influenced by the countries' level of indebtedness.

Aid Securitisation: An analysis of Australian and New Zealand Aid Discourses, Allocations, and Institutions

“…Common themes in the literature on the causes of Australia and New Zealand's policy recalibrations and strategic anxieties amount to perceived issues of: 'unwise' Chinese-funded large-scale projects not meeting local needs ('vanity projects') (White, 2019); doubts about the quality and sustainability of Chinese infrastructure projects ('roads to nowhere') (Köllner, 2020), plus their possibly detrimental effects on good governance initiatives of Australia and New Zealand's (Sullivan & Renz 2012); the growing dependence of some PICs on Chinese concessional loans (also framed as 'debt diplomacy') (Pryke et al, 2019) (4) the geopolitical competition in the Pacific, a region that has traditionally been regarded as within Australia's and the United States' 'sphere of influence' (Van Grieken & Kantorowicz, 2021). Scholarly articles on the subject may be broadly categorised between pessimistic or optimistic attitudes on China's engagement in the region.…”

“…), Yang (2009 , and Zhang andLawson (2017) all emphasise the positive aspects of China's aid to PICs, such as providing new aid options.2.6 FRAMING CHINA IN THE PACIFICOver time, the academic literature has broadly shifted from pessimistic to optimistic views on Chinese engagement in the Pacific Islands region. However, scholars remain divided on whether Chinese aid is motivated by Beijing's foreign policy objectives, economic interests, or the institutional quality of recipient countries(Van Grieken & Kantorowicz, 2021). Due to the use of Speech Act theory in Securitisation theory, it is necessary to examine the literature on Australian and New Zealand official and media discourses on China.According to Szadziewski (2021), a 'discourse of fear' dominates media commentary on China in relation to the Pacific Islands region Sullivan and Renz (2012).…”