An op-ed piece in the New York Times offers a new spin on the China-in-the-developing-world question. According to the author, Chinese academics have proposed using development aid to grow markets for Chinese products and thereby help the Chinese economy — a Marshall Plan for the 21st century. Most of the specific examples cited in the article were infrastructure projects, and it’s unclear how different that is from the aid-for-oil (or aid-for-services purchased from Chinese contractors) that already seems to be happening. But if there really is a chance that China might explicitly try to use development aid to grow local economies in the developing world, that would be really interesting.
I also googled the author of the op-ed piece, Ben Simpfendorfer, and he has recently written a book about deepening ties between China and the Middle East, and apparently speaks fluent Arabic and Chinese… impressive.
Any money in the plan for a very deserving Swede in Wuhan?