China and International Development: Narratives and Strategic Priorities

In 2021 the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) released a new white paper, China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era, articulating the vision and framework of China’s engagement to global development. Although China’s development strategies remain heavily reliant on bilateral funding, China-promoted multilateral initiatives, such as the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank (NDB), recently emerged as major actors in disseminating ideas about social and economic development in Asia and beyond. This chapter discusses the relevance of a Chinese narrative about development cooperation, the multilateral institutional framework established by China, and the strategic priorities that guide it. It argues that Chinese narratives with regard to international development and, more specifically, about South-South Development Cooperation (SSDC), while designed to improve the country’s competitiveness at the global level, posit consistent challenges to the ideological orientation for international development cooperation. The creation of Chinese-led multilateral institutions raised fundamental questions about the future of the MDBs agenda and policy prescription but, even more, with regard to the global public discourse in the context of international development.