Chinese Foreign aid, National Image Construction and Global Leadership Generation: An Empirical Study Based on a Cross-country Sample
Published in Journal of Contemporary Asia-Pacific Studies, 2024
The political and economic impact of Chinese foreign aid has become a trending research topic in recent years. Based on the new perspective of global leadership, this paper examines the international political effects and mechanisms of foreign aid on the donor countries themselves. On the basis of establishing the theoretical correlation between Chinese foreign aid, national image and global leadership, the relevant theoretical hypotheses are empirically tested using cross-country sample data of Chinese foreign aid from 2000 to 2017. The results show that Chinese foreign aid significantly improves Chinese global leadership, which has begun to appear since the global financial crisis. In particular, aid in the areas of economic and social infrastructure as well as aid in the form of finance and credit has had a significant impact on international influence. Mechanism tests show that national image is an important mechanism for Chinese foreign aid to enhance its global leadership: along with the increase in Chinese foreign aid, Chinese national image in recipient countries has significantly improved, with more positive news reports on China by the media and more positive subjective evaluations of China by the people in recipient countries, more recognition of the constructive role played by China in the international community by the recipient countries and Chinese international influence has also increased. Based on the perspective of global leadership, the study in this paper expands the positive impact of foreign aid on aid recipients, and also contributes to policies for shaping Chinese national image and the enhancement of national soft power in the new era.
Recommended citation: Gongyan Yang, Zixian Huang. (2024). Chinese Foreign aid, National Image Construction and Global Leadership Generation: An Empirical Study Based on a Cross-country Sample. Journal of Contemporary Asia-Pacific Studies.