Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump’s restrictions on foreign help and the goal of an significant financing programs of the agency around the world may offer an opening for America’s largest opponent China.
From the dismantling of the US agency for international development to the abolition of international groups, Trump’s drastic “America First” movements have expressed some concerns from some legislators and experts about Beijing’s growing stroke at the expense of American interests.
Foreign support offered the United States a source for “Soft Power” – so that it cultivates the good will, build alliances and countered opponents to support national security without troops, weapons or other forced measures.
In Cambodia, the contrast could not be sharper than China and sent $ 4.4 million to support machine operations because Trump a grant of 6.3 million US war. “
Administrative officers say that it has passed to check how America spends money abroad.
When asked whether the United States would give China and Russia an opening for a greater global influence, the national security advisor Mike Waltz denied this and said that NBC recently “too often, these missions and programs … are not in harmony. to push back with strategic US interests such as China. “
In Panama, the government brought the government to terminate the belt and street initiative, the flagship of Beijing in overseas for the development of abroad, which caused the conviction from China.
What it means for the United States to step down
Experts and legislators do not agree on the effects of the United States that withdraw from foreign help. Complaints present the freezing of the administration in relation to foreign help and are against USA, with some of these efforts being temporarily recorded.
“The second Trump government will deliver the goal for China,” said Feng Zhang, guest scientist of the Paul Tsai China Center of the Yale Law School, at a recent in Washington.
Senator Andy Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, was concerned for the same reason. “China doesn’t even have to fight for his influence on the world because of our own efforts,” said Kim recently about “Meet the press”.
MP John Moolenaar, a Republican from Michigan, who chairs the China Committee on House selection committee, said it could be time to change foreign support.
“I think while we deal with it, we will find out what works and what didn’t work,” he said. Sure what these values ​​are. “
Dennis Wilder, Senior Fellow at the initiative for the US China dialogue on global topics at Georgetown University, said global influence goes beyond foreign help, with the USA the most powerful military in the world and its dollar that dominates the financial system , mastered.
Do not let us “accept that China is ready or is able to step where the United States may leave a vacuum,” said Wilder.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said that Beijing was “ready to work with all countries and parties, including the United States, to strengthen exchange and cooperation in the field of development in order to promote the common development and prosperity between all countries” .
The foreign aid rivalry
The two countries – the main actors in global development – spend different foreign support. Most of the Chinese money is issued as debt and usually spent on energy and infrastructure projects.
Most US funds were paid as grants or loans with low or no interest in areas such as public health and humanitarian aid, said Aiddata, an international development research laboratory at the Global Research Institute at the University of William & Mary.
In Peru, the Chinese money in Chancay, which was opened in November during a visit to Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, helped to build the construction of the 1.3 billion dollar. In contrast, the US foreign aid in Peru was used to finance coffee and cocoa as alternatives to cocaine production.
Elsewhere, American dollars helped fight HIV/AIDS in Africa, treated malnourished children in southern Sudan and performed medical services in an accommodation in the immigrant in Mexico.
In view of the recognition that the United States should finance material foreign projects such as ports and factories, the Congress in 2018 was set up an institution to combine government financing with private investments for projects such as the Trans-Africa Rail Project in Angola.
China spent a total of 1.34 trillion dollars for almost 18,000 development projects in overseas between 2000 and 2021, which has an average of around 61 billion US dollars a year, said Aiddata.
Between 2001 and 2023, the United States paid 1.24 trillion dollars of foreign help, including military support, according to the research laboratory.
USAIS, which was created during the Cold War to counteract the Soviet influence, is the largest player in the US government in foreign aid. It paid out 43.8 billion US dollars in 2023, said Aiddata. This corresponds less than 1% of the overall annual government editions.
USA could risk good will abroad
Due to the differences in the financed projects, China will probably not occur as a US retreat, but Beijing still wins because relationships and goodwill build in foreign aid, said Samantha Custer, director of political analysis at Aiddata.
“These countries are watching the USA and how they deal with its partners and their workers, and they meet whether the United States is a reliable economic and security partner, and there are increasingly concerns that we are not,” said Custer “, said Custer “.
This will be used in Beijing’s story that it is a responsible partner and global guide and at the same time saw doubts about the USA, she said.
The China Labor Watch based in New York, which monitors working conditions and examines practices such as the apply of forced labor in China, is based on the financing of US financial means for around 90% of its budget, and the AID freezen forced the group, According to Li Qiang, founder of groups, they leave most of its US employees, according to Li Qiang.
China now has a strategic opening as an alternative for countries that are looking for investments without political conditions, said Salvador Santino Regilme, Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
“The broader implication of the US AID Freeze is a return to militarized diplomacy, in which Soft Power is in favor of a hard power compulsion,” he said.
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The Associated Press Writer Sopheng Chang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, contributed to this report.
