Egypt Expects $300 Million in Budget Support from Beijing-based Bank

Egypt Today published on 28 April 2025 an article titled "Egypt Moves Closer to Securing $300 Million from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank."

Egypt's Minister of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation recently commented that his government is completing the paperwork for $300 million in budget support from the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.  

US International Development Finance Corporation vs China

The Financial Times published on 23 December 2019 an article titled "China's $1.3tn Global Spending Spree Will Collapse, Says Top US Official" by James Politi and Demetri Sevastopulo.

The article notes that Adam Boehler, the new chief executive of the US International Development Finance Corporation, which replaces the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, said that China's international investments were "100 per cent" like a house of cards because of "debt overload, poor infrastructure, bribes [and] lack of transparency." Boehler added "we have to be there as an alternative because I could see China take down a whole bunch of emerging countries . . . there will be more and more cracks and then the glass will break."


Some unsolicited advice for Mr. Boehler and the International Development Finance Corporation: Get your own house in order and leave the criticism of Chinese financing to others. There are legitimate criticisms of China's approach to finance, but the sky is not falling.

China's Foreign Aid and Africa

The Australian National University published in 2017 a book on China's New Sources of Economic Growth that contains a chapter titled "China's Innovative and Pragmatic Foreign Aid: Shaped by and Now Shaping Globalisation" by Lauren Johnston, University of Melbourne, and Marina Rudyak, Heidelberg University.

Just over half of China's foreign aid goes to Africa. This chapter summarizes the evolution of China's inbound and outbound foreign aid policy. It offers an especially good historical analysis of China's outbound foreign aid. The chapter also discusses the significance of China's foreign aid for recipient countries, with particular reference to Africa.

A Changing World Order: China's Rise in Africa

The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) at Johns Hopkins University published on 29 December 2016 an essay titled "A Changing World Order: China's Rise in Africa" by Anna Stahl, most recently a research fellow at AICGS.

The author comments that while Europe and the United States have been Africa's traditional partners, China is starting to challenge their influence on the continent. The essay compares how Europe and the U.S. have responded to China's growing influence in Africa. It argues that in the current context of global uncertainty, transatlantic policy coordination on China is needed to contribute to a more stable and predictable international environment and to avoid that the rise of new powers and the ongoing power transition will lead to confrontation.

BRICS New Development Bank

The South African Institute of International Affairs published in June 2016 a study titled "The New Development Bank: Moving the BRICS from an Acronym to an Institution" by Talitha Bertelsmann-Scott, Cyril Prinsloo, Elizabeth Sidiropolous, Lesley Wentworth and Christopher Wood. The paper tracks the historical development of the New Development Bank, investigates modalities around its operations, and looks towards the likely impact it will have on development finance.

In a related piece, Foreign Policy published on 6 July 2016 an article titled "The World's Rising Powers Have Fallen" by Suzanne Nossel. It highlights the problems facing several of the BRICS and suggests they will not threaten the Western economic order anytime soon.

China's One Belt One Road Initiative

The Center for Strategic and International Studies published in March 2016 a study titled "President Xi Jinping's 'Belt and Road' Initiative" by Christopher K. Johnson.  The study concludes there is little doubt that President Xi Jinping views the One Belt One Road as the signature foreign policy theme of his tenure and the practical embodiment of his China Dream for promoting national rejuvenation and cementing China's place as a leading world power.

This study is Asia centric and does not discuss the Maritime Silk Road.  The relevance of this project for Africa remains something of an open question. 

China and the Developing World

The Robert Strauss Center and the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Texas in Austin hosted on 24 February 2016 an hour and a half panel session on "China and the Developing World," which is available on youtube. The participants were Suisheng Zhao, University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of International Studies, Nadege Rolland, National Bureau of Asian Research, Louisa Greve, National Endowment for Democracy, and myself. 

The focus was on the One Belt, One Road and China-Africa relations.  A brief written synopsis of the panel session is also available. 

Social and Environmental Impacts of Chinese Overseas Investment

Yale's School of Forestry and the Environment has released a summary of the conference proceedings of the 2nd Yale Symposium on Chinese Overseas Investment and Its Environmental and Social Impacts that took place at Yale University on 3-4 April 2015.