Somalilandsun-The University of Heidelberg Department of Economics published in October 2016 a paper titled “Apples and Dragon Fruits: The Determinants of Aid and Other Forms of State Financing from China to Africa” by Axel Dreher, Andreas Fuchs, Bradley Parks, Austin M. Strange, and Michael J. Tierney.
The authors argued that much of the controversy about Chinese aid stems from a failure to distinguish between China’s official development assistance (ODA) and more commercially-oriented sources and types of state financing. They found the allocation of Chinese ODA to be driven primarily by foreign policy considerations, while economic interests better explain the distribution of less concessional flows.
