China’s Global Development Spending Spree: Winning the World One Yuan at a Time?

China’s opaque official finance fuels a narrative that the country is a rogue donor that partners with corrupt regimes, entices countries to borrow beyond their capacity, and extracts security or economic concessions from recipient governments. Leaders in capital-hungry economies counter that China is one of the few partners willing to finance infrastructure projects. This chapter argues that Chinese official finance has evolved in four phases driven by both economic and geostrategic interests. Some evidence suggests that Beijing’s efforts are paying off in more favorable popular perceptions in recipient countries, inroads with foreign leaders, and discrete economic and security concessions. However, Beijing’s “power of the purse” does not always garner influence in the ways that might be expected and even provokes backlash under specific conditions.