How Is China Redefining International Development?
Dr. Yalin Xin
The recently published official document of “China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era”[1] brought new contents to the evolving scope of international development. The white paper highlights the notions of universal harmony as the ideal and repaying kindness with kindness as foundational for China’s sharing of its experiences with the world for betterment of lives among the international community.
Unique to China’s approaches to development cooperation are, 1) “South-South cooperation” as distinguished from North-South cooperation. China sees itself as the world’s largest developing economy that provides mutual assistance between developing countries; 2) Belt and Road Initiatives as public goods China offers to the world and a platform for international development cooperation, to “ build the Belt and Road into a path towards peace, prosperity, opening up, innovation, green development, cultural exchanges, and clean government.” 3) “helping other developing countries to pursue the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” This is especially timely given the fact that the pandemic has caused serious challenges to the agenda, and China has already extended its helping hand to other developing nations moderating the effect of the pandemic.
It’s also interesting to note the principles of China’s international development cooperation that include:
· Respecting each other as equals. It calls for respect of one another as equals in international development cooperation and rejects interference in other countries’ internal affairs or pursuing political self-interest.
· Focusing on development and improving people’s lives. China stresses “investment in poverty alleviation, disaster relief, education, health care, agriculture, employment, environmental protection, and climate change response, and actively participates in emergency humanitarian relief operations.”
· Providing the means for independent development. It aims at empowering developing countries to “tap their own potential for diversified, independent and sustainable development” through sharing of experience and technologies and providing training to locals.
· Being open and inclusive to promote exchanges and mutual learning. International development cooperation should be “based on the principle that projects should be proposed, agreed and led by recipient countries.”
While the West has historically defined what development means and the agenda of development, China’s initiative may cause us to pause and critically re-examine our understanding and practice. At WCIU we believe that the goal of development should take into consideration the biblical concept of shalom—right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the creation. Development is a dynamic process of change and growth. It is most effective when generated from within a socio-cultural system. Development that aims at seeing societies transformed provides not only options and resources for physical and social betterment, but also hope and biblical answers for spiritual questions and needs. We emphasize integration of biblical, cultural and historical insights as well as insights from various academic disciplines, which are often isolated from each other, in their contribution to international development.[2]
I hope this blog will interest you to read the entire white paper on “China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era” and join in the dialogue by leaving your comment at the end of the blog, and sharing insights on your own social networks.
[1] Full text of the white paper is available from Chinese government’s official website. http://english.www.gov.cn/archive/whitepaper/202101/10/content_WS5ffa6bbbc6d0f72576943922.html
[2] Refer to current WCIU catalog for complete description of philosophy of international development.