China's Interest-Free Loan Cancellations for Africa

 Boston University's Global Development Policy Center published in September 2022 an analysis titled "China's Interest-Free Loans to Africa: Uses and Cancellations" by Jyhjong Hwang and Oyintarelado Moses.

China recently announced it would waive 23 interest-free loans with maturity by the end of 2021 for 17 African countries.  The announcement of the cancellations did not elaborate on how much value they might represent, nor which 17 countries were involved.  The Global Development Policy Center calculated that the value of the cancellations could vary from $45 million to $610 million.  This range, even at the high end, constitutes a small portion of China's lending to Africa. 

Japan as Model for China's Use of NGOs in Foreign Aid

The Panda Paw Dragon Claw blog posted on 17 August 2021 an analysis titled "How Does Japan Involve NGOs in Foreign Aid? Implications for China" by Kenichi Doi, Peking University. 

The author describes the use of non-governmental organizations in aid programs administered by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and suggests they could serve as a model for the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA).

Debt and Loan Commitments to Africa: China vs World Bank

 The China-Africa Project posted on 20 May 2021 an analysis titled "Who Is the Bigger Official Lender in Africa: China or the World Bank?" by Kevin Acker, China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

The author underscores the importance of defining terms when determining who is the bigger lender in Africa. All lending from the World Bank to African governments is "official."  Only three Chinese lenders--the China Export-Import Bank, China Development Bank, and the China International Development Cooperation Agency--meet the World Bank's definition of official.  CARI tracks another 27 Chinese state-owned enterprises that also make loans to Africa.  When these are added, total loan commitments to Africa from all Chinese creditors from 2000 to 2019 reached $152 billion compared to $151 billion from the World Bank.   

China International Development Cooperation Agency

The Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy published in September 2019 an analysis titled "The Ins and Outs of China's International Development Agency" by Marina Rudyak, Heidelberg University.

Established in 2018, the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) combined into one agency most of China's foreign aid program. The author concluded that the CIDCA's highly ambitious agenda is a clear sign that, after years of considerable growth in China's development finance, the underlying bureaucratic system is now beginning to mature. The changes that accompanied the creation of the CIDCA show that development aid is at the forefront of Chinese policymakers agenda, but it remains to be seen how much of this promise the agency can make good on in the forseeable future.