Two years ago, Daniel Russel and Blake Berger, senior analysts at the Asia Society Policy Institute, embarked on an ambitious project to bring U.S. and Chinese stakeholders together to speak in a safe, controlled setting about their respective countries' aid strategies in the Global South.

This was a big undertaking given how few direct contacts there are today between U.S. and Chinese stakeholders, particularly on a topic like international aid and development that is largely overlooked in the broader Sino-U.S. relationship.

But just as they were about to release their final report, Donald Trump upended their project with the decision to effectively halt all U.S. foreign aid.

Daniel and Blake join Eric & Cobus to talk about what they learned and how U.S. and Chinese international development assistance are poised to change in the Trump era.

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Chinese overseas development finance is unrecognizable from what it was just a few years ago. After suffering tens of billions of dollars in losses, Chinese lenders have moved to de-risk their lending to countries in Africa, Asia, and across the Global South. Instead of those once massive bilateral loans from the two main policy banks in Beijing, Chinese lending now encompasses a much more diverse array of actors, particularly in Africa.

This new approach was on full display last month when Kenya closed a deal with a consortium of Chinese stakeholders to finance the extension of the Standard Gauge Railway from the current terminus in the Rift Valley to the Ugandan border. A third of the cost to build the new railway will be paid for by the Kenyan government, around another third will be comprised of a consortium of Chinese investors, and the rest will be financed with loans from the China Exim Bank.

Yunan Chen, a research fellow at ODI Global in London, and Teal Emery, an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins SAIS in Washington, D.C., join Eric & Cobus to discuss their new report, which breaks down the latest trends in Chinese development finance, and to explain why the deal in Kenya should serve as a case study for other African borrowers.

Show Notes:

• ODI Global: Greener on the other side? — Mapping China’s overseas co-financing and financial innovation by Yunnan Chen and Teal Emery
• ODI Global: China’s creditor diversification in Africa: impacts and challenges of infrastructure debt-financing by Chinese commercial creditors by Yunnan Chen and Tianyi Wu
• South China Morning Post: After delay, new Chinese funding plan will help extend railway to Uganda, Kenya says by Jevans Nyabiage

JOIN THE DISCUSSION:
X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander | @stadenesque

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

Now on Bluesky! Follow CGSP at @chinagsproject.bsky.social

FOLLOW CGSP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC:
Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine
Arabic: عربي: www.alsin-alsharqalawsat.com | @SinSharqAwsat

JOIN US ON PATREON!
Become a CGSP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CGSP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth

This week Eric & Cobus sit down with Wu Peng, the director-general of the department of African affairs in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for his perspective on a wide range of issues that are impacting relations between the two regions.

The conversation also features questions from a trio of experts in China-Africa relations including:

• Gyude Moore, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development (@gyude_moore)
• Zainab Usman, director of the Africa program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (@MissZeeUsman)
• Aggrey Mutambo, senior diplomatic affairs writer for the Daily Nation and The East African newspaper (@agmutambo)

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Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque | @wupeng_mfachina

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