China provides foreign aid to help recipient countries develop their national economies, safeguard national sovereignty, defend national independence, and promote friendly relations and economic and trade cooperation between China and developing countries.
1. Basic situation of China’s foreign aid China’s foreign aid began in 1950.
By the end of 2003, 146 countries had received assistance from China.
Over the past 50 years, China has helped other developing countries complete 1,740 projects involving agriculture, water conservancy, textiles, papermaking, chemical industry and other fields, and has sent a total of about 550,000 foreign aid engineering and technical personnel.
In addition to the above-mentioned complete project assistance, China has also provided a large amount of material assistance and various technical assistance to developing countries under the aid.
Since 1983, China has provided technical assistance to more than 100 countries and more than 10 international and regional organizations.
*** held more than 264 technical training courses of various types, training more than 6,500 technical personnel, covering dozens of areas such as agriculture, animal husbandry, fishery, small hydropower, machinery, energy, medical and health, environmental protection, meteorology, desert control, food processing, etc.
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In addition, from 1998 to the end of 2003, the Chinese government also held 35 "Economic Management Officials Training Courses" for developing countries. A total of 751 economic management officials from 106 countries participated in the training activities.
2. The main ways China provides foreign aid There are three main ways: free aid, interest-free loans, and preferential loans.
1. Free aid methods Free aid is mainly used to help recipient countries build medium and small social welfare projects, such as hospitals, schools, low-cost housing, wells and water supply, etc.
In addition, free assistance is also used to provide material assistance, humanitarian emergency relief assistance, and personnel training.
2. Interest-free loans Interest-free loans are mainly used to help recipient countries build some infrastructure and civil facilities projects.
Over the past 50 years, China has helped developing countries build a large number of public and civil facilities.
In the future, in order to meet the urgent needs of recipient countries, the Chinese government will also reserve an appropriate proportion of interest-free loans to help recipient countries build such projects.
3. Preferential loan methods Preferential loans are medium- and long-term low-interest loans with government assistance provided by financial institutions designated by the Chinese government.
The interest difference between the preferential interest rate and the benchmark interest rate published by the People's Bank of China is subsidized by the Chinese government.
Preferential loans are mainly used for joint ventures and cooperation between Chinese enterprises and enterprises in recipient countries to build and operate productive projects with local needs and economic benefits, or to provide complete sets of equipment and mechanical and electrical products produced in China.
Joint ventures between China and the recipient country, enterprises in the recipient country, or Chinese enterprises with the consent of the recipient country can apply for preferential loans, but the project must be evaluated by the Export-Import Bank of China and the recipient country's lending institution and deemed feasible before it can be loaned.
Concessional loans are loans with an aid nature and are therefore mainly provided to developing countries with economic difficulties.
In addition to the above three main forms of foreign aid, the Chinese government has also established "Special Investment Funds" and "African Human Resources Development Fund" for African countries.
The former is used to support and encourage strong and reputable Chinese companies to invest in African countries and carry out mutually beneficial cooperation; the latter is used to help African countries train various management and technical talents.
According to Lee Kuan Yew's estimate, China provided US$1 billion in aid in the 1980s.
1. Assistance to Albania: China aided the construction of a large number of enterprises in Albania. Later, they basically stopped or semi-stopped production, and the equipment had long become scrap metal. They helped Albania build a fortress for war preparation, and they began to use it to feed chickens...
… The then Minister of International Liaison Geng Biao revealed that from 1964 to the end of the 1970s, China gave Algeria 9 billion yuan!
(Some scholars have calculated based on the currency’s gold content and purchasing power that it is equivalent to hundreds of billions today! It is also equivalent to sending red envelopes of more than 4,000 yuan to each Albanian with a population of 2 million at that time!) General Wu Xiuquan’s article "Memories and
"In Memoriam" said that Malile, the son-in-law of Albanian dictator Hoxha and Albanian diplomat, narrated such an incident in his article "Chinese Political Figures in My Eyes": In 1962, he went to China to ask for food aid and found
Minister of Foreign Trade Li Qiang, to no avail; later he found Liu Shaoqi to solve the problem.
It happened that at that time, China, which was short of food, imported a large amount of wheat from Canada. Several Chinese ships loaded with wheat were sailing to China in the Atlantic Ocean. After receiving the order from the central government, they immediately changed their course and turned around to sail to the port of Canada to unload all the wheat.
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When describing the matter, the Ma diplomat did not forget to leave a kind word.
General Wu added sadly: The Chinese are so generous!
2. Vietnam: For Vietnam, in addition to economic assistance, China provides more free combat and labor assistance.
In addition to fighting on the front line, Chinese soldiers are also responsible for communications, logistics, road construction, snow clearing, and even digging ditches and farming for their farmers.