Author: Deborah Bräutigam, Shenggen Fan, Ravi Kanbur, Shang-Jin Wei, Xiaobo Zhang.

This chapter examines China’s aid policy. It presents a brief history of Chinese aid, followed by discussions of aid policy development and implementation; instruments of aid; and the scope and volume of aid. Between the 1950s and the end of 2009, China’s total aid commitments were 256.29 billion yuan, including 106.2 billion yuan in grants, 76.54 billion yuan in interest-free loans, and 73.55 billion yuan in concessional loans. A debt relief programme led to the cancellation of 25.58 billion yuan of overdue interest-free loans in 50 countries (2000–09), the majority (thirty-five) in Africa. In 2009, Africa received nearly half (45.7 per cent) of China’s official total aid (including concessional loans).