Abstract
In 2021 the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) released a new white paper, China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era, articulating the vision and framework of China’s engagement to global development. Although China’s development strategies remain heavily reliant on bilateral funding, China-promoted multilateral initiatives, such as the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank (NDB), recently emerged as major actors in disseminating ideas about social and economic development in Asia and beyond.
This chapter discusses the relevance of a Chinese narrative about development cooperation, the multilateral institutional framework established by China, and the strategic priorities that guide it. It argues that Chinese narratives with regard to international development and, more specifically, about South-South Development Cooperation (SSDC), while designed to improve the country’s competitiveness at the global level, posit consistent challenges to the ideological orientation for international development cooperation. The creation of Chinese-led multilateral institutions raised fundamental questions about the future of the MDBs agenda and policy prescription but, even more, with regard to the global public discourse in the context of international development.
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Notes
- 1.
Remarks by H.E. Xi Jinping, president of the People’s Republic of China, at the Opening Ceremony of the Fifth Annual Meeting of The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, 28 July 2020, Xinhua.
- 2.
Following the Money. Development Finance helps China win friends and influence American allies’, The Economist, 17 March 2015. Available at: https://www.economist.com/asia/2015/03/17/following- the-money.
- 3.
Available at: https://www.adb.org/documents/adb-annual-report-2017.
- 4.
‘习近平 讲述好中国故事给我们的启示’, The State Council of the People’s Republic of China, 26 May 2015, available here: http://www.scio.gov.cn/m/zhzc/10/Document/1435028/1435028.htm.
- 5.
US anger at Britain joining Chinese-led investment bank AIIB’, The Guardian, 13 March 2015. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/13/white-house-pointedly-asks-uk-to-use-its- voice-as-part-of-chinese-led-bank.
- 6.
New Asian Development Bank Seen As Sign Of China’s Growing Influence’, NPR, 16 April 2015. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2015/04/16/400178364/finance-officials-to-discuss-asian-development-bank- at-spring-meetings?t=1623230777268.
- 7.
According to Behr and Heath, even the formation of “paradigms” in academia can be considered as an ideological process. See Hartmut Behr and Amelia Heat, (2009), ‘Misreading IR theory and Ideology critique: Morgenthau, Waltz and Neo-realism’, Review of International Studies, Vol.35, No.2, pp. 327–349.
- 8.
To Voeten, liberal internationalism identifies the WWII multilateral institutional order with the US hegemony. As the US long-term interests do not match anymore with that specific set of ideological principles envisioned by the liberal order a decade ago, new institutions with a set of ideologically different principles are also on the rise (2021, p. 51).
- 9.
Jiang Zhida and Zhang Chuanhong, ‘亚投行 推动多边合作，促进发展的新典范’, China Institute of International Studies, 31 July 2020, available here: https://www.ciis.org.cn/yjcg/sspl/202009/t20200918_7364.html.
- 10.
Remarks by H. E. Xi Jinping at the Opening Ceremony of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the AIIB’, 28 July 2020, available at: https://www.aiib.org/en/news-events/events/2020-annual- meeting/_common/_download/Opening-Address-His-Excellency-Xi-Jinping-President-of-the-Peoples- Republic-of-China.pdf.
- 11.
国际话语全建设中几大基础性理论问题’, The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China, 27 February 2017, available here: http://www.scio.gov.cn/zhzc/10/Document/1543300/1543300.htm.
- 12.
提升国际话语权中国需要这样做’, People’s Daily, 7 June 2021, available here: http://www.people.com.cn/n1/2021/0607/c437595-32124020.html.
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
Full Text: China’s International Cooperation in the New Era’, The State Council of the People’s Republic of China, 10 January 2021, available at: http://english.www.gov.cn/archive/whitepaper/202101/10/content_WS5ffa6bbbc6d0f72576943922.html.
- 17.
Full Text of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s address at AIIB inauguration ceremony’, Xinhua, 16 January 2016, Xinhua, https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2016-01/16/content_23116718_2.htm.
- 18.
AIIB can be a key benchmark for BRI’, Global Times, 7 July 2019, available at: https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1157054.shtml.
- 19.
See for instance the World Bank Environmental and Social Policies, available here: https://www.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/environmental-and-social-policies.
- 20.
- 21.
Lowell Chow, ‘Is the AIIB lean, clean and green?’, The Diplomat, 2 August 2017. Available at: https://thediplomat.com/2017/08/is-the-aiib-really-lean-clean-and-green/.
- 22.
- 23.
For further information about the World Bank’s environmental and social policies, see: https://www.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/environmental-and-social-policies.
- 24.
AIIB: is the Chinese-led Development Bank a role model?’, CFR, 25 June 2018. Available at: https://www.cfr.org/blog/aiib-chinese-led-development-bank-role-model.
- 25.
‘Telling China’s Story’, Beijing Review, 30 January 2019, available at: http://www.bjreview.com/China_Focus/Newsweek/201901/t20190130_800155631.html.
- 26.
President Ashraf of Afghanistan Meets with Wang Yi’, 9 December 2015, available at: https://www.mfa.gov.cn/ce/cgjb/eng/xwdt/zgyw/t1323368.htm.
- 27.
Fu Ying, ‘Shape global narratives for telling China’s stories’, China Daily, 21 April 2020. Available at: https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202004/21/WS5e9e313ba3105d50a3d178ab.html.
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Menegazzi, S. (2023). China and International Development: Narratives and Strategic Priorities. In: Attinà, F., Feng, Y. (eds) China and World Politics in Transition. Global Power Shift. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27358-2_6
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