China\u2019s role as Southeast Asia\u2019s largest infrastructure financier is increasing its regional influence at a time when the United States and the European Union are slashing their foreign aid budgets, a new report by an Australian think tank said.<\/p>\n
With the Trump administration in the United States scrapping about US$60 billion in aid and European countries pulling back more than US$25 billion, \u201cthe centre of gravity\u201d in Southeast Asia\u2019s development finance landscape \u201clooks set to drift East, notably to Beijing, but also Tokyo and Seoul\u201d, the Lowy Institute report, which was released today, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina is the single largest partner on infrastructure financing in Southeast Asia, but traditional donors combined still outspend it,\u201d the report\u2019s lead authors, Alexandre Dayant, Grace Stanhope and Roland Rajah, wrote. \u201cAs Western aid declines and China recalibrates its strategy, Beijing is well positioned to regain dominance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southeast Asia\u2019s traditional partners include countries such as the US and Australia, and international organisations such as the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.<\/p>\n
With the US expected to cut its foreign assistance by 83 per cent this year, the retrenchment of funds from Europe and tariff uncertainties undermining trade ties between the US and other countries, China is enhancing its influence in the region through infrastructure connections. Recent examples include work on high-speed railway links with Vietnam and Thailand.<\/p>\n
China International Development Cooperation Agency spokesman Li Ming told a news conference in March that China\u2019s \u201cprinciples related to foreign aid, including non-interference in internal affairs, no political strings attached and no empty promises made, will not change\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA major country should act like a major country by shouldering its due international obligations and fulfilling its responsibilities, rather than renege on its promises, be mercenary or bullying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s role as Southeast Asia\u2019s largest infrastructure financier is increasing its regional influence at a time when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[104747,186,35151,1395,104743,104744,2000,299,5187,1699,474,14307,36,1824,8262,6084,104748,104746,104745,1055,95889,14966,15848,731,8406,49,2150],"class_list":{"0":"post-277633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-asian-development-bank","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cambodia","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-china-international-development-cooperation-agency","13":"tag-east-coast-rail-link","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european","17":"tag-european-union","18":"tag-finance","19":"tag-foreign-aid","20":"tag-france","21":"tag-germany","22":"tag-indonesia","23":"tag-infrastructure","24":"tag-jakarta-bandung-high-speed-railway","25":"tag-kyaukphyu-deep-sea-port-project","26":"tag-lowy-institute","27":"tag-malaysia","28":"tag-myanmar","29":"tag-philippines","30":"tag-southeast-asia","31":"tag-thailand","32":"tag-united-nations","33":"tag-united-states","34":"tag-vietnam"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}