The UK’s aid engagement with China – forthcoming information note
11 Nov 2020
The UK’s aid engagement with China will be the subject of a forthcoming information note by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI).
Although still defined as a developing country, China plays an increasingly important role in the developing world as a donor, investor and trading partner, and its development progress over the last three decades has re-shaped its status and role in the international community.
In 2011, the former Department for International Development (DFID) announced it would no longer provide official development assistance (ODA) to China. Other government departments, including the former Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Prosperity Fund, have continued to spend aid in China on its domestic development challenges across a wide range of sectors, though information in the public domain about this aid spend is limited.
ICAI’s information note will provide a factual account of the UK’s financial and strategic engagement with China on development issues, and explore how this engagement fits into the UK’s wider foreign policy approach.
As an information note, it will not make evaluative judgments or make recommendations. Instead it will provide insights about an area of the UK aid programme that is of considerable public interest.