I. Basic situation of China's foreign aid
China's foreign aid began in 1950. By the end of 2003, the number of countries receiving Chinese aid had reached 146. Over the past 50 years, China has helped other developing countries to build 1,740 projects in a variety of fields such as agriculture, water conservancy, textile, paper-making, chemical industry, etc., and has sent out a total of about 550,000 foreign-aid engineers and technicians.
In addition to the above complete sets of project assistance, China has also provided a large amount of material assistance and various kinds of technical assistance to developing countries under the aid fund. Since 1983, China has provided technical assistance to more than 100 countries and more than 10 international and regional organizations. *** More than 264 technical training courses of various kinds have been organized, training more than 6,500 technicians in dozens of specialties, including agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, small hydropower, machinery, energy, health care, environmental protection, meteorology, desert management and food processing. In addition, from 1998 to the end of 2003, the Chinese Government also organized 35 training courses for economic management officials from developing countries, and 751 economic management officials from 106 countries participated in the training activities.
Second, China's main ways of providing assistance to foreign countries
There are mainly the following three ways: free aid, interest-free loans, and preferential loans.
1. Non-reimbursable aid
Non-reimbursable aid is mainly used to help recipient countries build small and medium-sized social welfare projects, such as hospitals, schools, low-cost housing, and drilling wells for water supply. In addition, non-reimbursable aid is also used to provide material assistance, humanitarian emergency disaster relief assistance and personnel training.
2. Interest-free loan mode
Interest-free loans are mainly used to help recipient countries build some infrastructure and civil facilities projects. Over the past 50 years, China has helped developing countries build a large number of civil facilities. In the future, in order to meet the urgent needs of recipient countries, the Chinese government will retain an appropriate proportion of interest-free loans to help them build such projects.
3. Preferential Loans
Preferential loans are medium- and long-term low-interest loans provided by financial institutions designated by the Chinese government with the nature of government assistance. The interest difference between the preferential interest rate and the benchmark interest rate published by the People's Bank of China is subsidized by the Chinese government.
The preferential loans are mainly used for joint ventures between Chinese enterprises and enterprises of recipient countries to build and operate productive projects with local needs and economic benefits, or to provide complete sets of equipment and electromechanical products produced in China.
Joint ventures between China and recipient countries, recipient country enterprises or Chinese enterprises agreed by the recipient country can apply for the use of preferential loans, but the project must be assessed by the Export-Import Bank of China and the lending institutions of the recipient country as feasible before lending. Concessionary loans are loans of an assistance nature and are therefore mainly provided to developing countries with economic difficulties.
In addition to the above three major forms of foreign aid, the Chinese government has also set up the "Investment Special Funds" and the "African Human Resources Development Fund" for African countries. The former is used to support and encourage strong and reputable Chinese enterprises to invest in African countries and carry out mutually beneficial cooperation; the latter is used to help African countries train various kinds of management and technical personnel.
According to Lee Kuan Yew's estimation, China assisted 1 billion dollars in the 1980s.
1, aid to Albania:
China for Albania to aid the construction of a large number of enterprises, and then basically in a state of shutdown, semi-suspension of production, the equipment has long become scrap iron; to help Albania to build a fortress for the preparation of the war, they began to feed it to the chickens.......
At the time of the Ministry of Foreign Liaison Minister Geng Biao revealed that from 1964 to the end of the 1970s, China gave 9 billion yuan to Afghanistan! (Some scholars have calculated that it is equivalent to hundreds of billions of dollars nowadays, based on the currency's gold content and purchasing power! It is also equivalent to giving red packets of more than $4,000 each to Armenians whose population size was 2 million at that time!)
General Wu Xiuquan's article, "Memories and Reminiscences," says that Malile, the son-in-law of Albanian dictator Hoxha and an Albanian diplomat, recounted in his article, "Chinese dignitaries in my eyes," that in 1962, he went to China to ask for food aid, and found Li Qiang, the minister of foreign trade, to no avail; and later still, he found Liu Shaoqi to solve the problem. Coincidentally, at that time, the lack of food in China to Canada imported a large number of wheat, several loaded with wheat Chinese ships are sailing to China in the Atlantic Ocean, after receiving the order of the central government, immediately change the direction of the voyage, turned around and sailed to the port of Afghanistan to unload all the wheat. The Ma diplomat recounted the incident without forgetting to leave a word of praise. General Wu added heartbreakingly: Chinese generosity ah!
2, Vietnam:
For Vietnam, China, in addition to economic assistance, more unpaid combat and labor assistance. Chinese soldiers, in addition to fighting on the front line, are also undertaking communications, logistics, road construction, snow removal, and even undertook to dig ditches for their farmers, planting and other things.
In addition, China has assisted 116,000 guns, 4,630 cannons, engineers, communication equipment, clothing, rice, medicine, gasoline, locomotives ......
In the war against China launched by the Vietnamese in 1978, they used the guns and cannons sent by the Chinese as weapons, and the bags of rice assisted by the Chinese as racks for guns. of rice as racks for guns and materials for bunkers to shoot Chinese soldiers! ......
3. North Korea:
For North Korea, China paid hundreds of thousands of Chinese sons and daughters of life (there is no quoted, recognized accurate figures), spent 6.3 billion yuan of war costs, 5.6 million tons of combat materials ......
In May 1996, the DPRK received 20,000 tons of food aid; in June 1999, the DPRK received 150,000 tons of food aid and 400,000 tons of coking coal; and in March 2001, the DPRK received a visit from Zeng Qinghong, who "expressed his gratitude to China for providing free aid". What was given and how much was given is not known; in September 2001, Zhu Bangzao answered a reporter's question, saying that on the occasion of the Chinese head of state's visit to the DPRK, he would provide the DPRK with "food and material assistance", the amount of which is not known. ......
An article in Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao of June 11, 2000, said that China's substantial aid to the DPRK is much more than the public knows: 500,000 tons of food, 1 million tons of oil, and 2.5 million tons of coal per year.
4. "African Brothers":
In 1967, when Zambian President Kaunda visited China to pull in favors, after praising Mao Zedong as "the old man, the brave man, and the wise man" most admired by Africans, he added "China's work to make the world hopeful" words of praise, Mao site office, shot the board: "this railroad but the investment of 100 million pounds, no big deal". In this situation, the Chinese officials present did not dare to speak out. Chinese officials in charge of road construction project on the railroad assessment concluded that: more than 1,800 kilometers in length, nearly 2 billion yuan investment. There is no information on how much was actually spent in the end. It was not only the money that was paid, or the 10 years of grueling construction. Seventy-eight fellow brothers gave their lives for it, the youngest of them at the age of 26.
Mongolia was the first to request support for the workforcePhoenix Blog Z`#O4x "MV/r6sqaQ
2~9~Ci#T z8l0 Just after the founding of the new China, letters requesting assistance from abroad came pouring in.
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"Vietnam's request for China's assistance in the matter of rice," "On the issue of Laos' request for economic assistance from our country." "On Yemen's request for assistance", "Records of conversations between senior Guinean officials requesting economic assistance from me, etc.", "Indonesia's request for assistance in building a textile factory and the Indonesian Minister of Industry's proposed visit to China for this purpose". ...... diplomatic archives show that so-and-so country "asked China to provide", "requested China's assistance", "asked me to give ", "requesting me to aid in building", "requesting me to send", is the 1950s some of China's embassies abroad call and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send the report of the common words and phrases. Phoenix Blog 1L v^t2YW m+aF }y
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The request to China for money, food and goods or assistance in the construction of factories, many of which were put forward by the heads of state themselves, they or to find my ambassadors abroad, or directly to write to the leaders of our country in a special letter, and the national government or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to our country in the form of a note, to discuss and Handle "foreign aid" affairs; at that time in China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and other government departments, embassies in the relevant countries in the work of this item occupies a lot of weight and important position. Phoenix Blog6sEp(mMJJ "F-G,`
9J m Lr4|#E#s9m0July 1950, China's first ambassador to Mongolia, Jiyatai, soon after his arrival, Mongolian Prime Minister Choibalsan asked him to "help solve the problem of labor force". This was probably the earliest request for foreign aid to our country. At that time, the Chinese side replied: "Because the domestic war of liberation has not yet ended, mobilizing workers to go abroad is difficult, this issue will be considered later." Phoenix Blog2fI~L TL
D |)j;fpQL%A.O0 *Premier remembered this promise to Mongolia.In November 1954, Vice Premier Ulanhu led a Chinese *** delegation to Ulaanbaatar.Before the trip, Premier Zhou instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to telegraph to Ambassador He Ying: "Inform the Mongolian side that this delegation is going to Mongolia, in addition to attending the Mongolian Party Congress, and would like to know about the Mongolian side. in addition to attending the Mongolian Party Congress, and to find out what difficulties the Mongolian side has in the area of labor and what kind of help we may give." On December 8, the Central Committee of China*** formally telegraphed to the Central Committee of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party: "We shall try to meet your requests as far as possible." One month later, Mongolia submitted to our embassy in Mongolia a list of a total of 12,250 workers, including rough and fine carpenters, masons, brick and tile makers, lime burners, grain, vegetable, tree and flower growers, furniture makers, cooks, tailors, boot makers, printers and dyers, barrel makers, fishermen, and other nearly 40 kinds of work, and the Mongolian side at the same time asked the workers to bring their own tools.
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i hi(lr,o8b4g n+W0 In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Embassy of the reply to the message is quite difficult: "This time Mongolia proposed a variety of workers, the request to go to the Mongolian and the time is urgent, and involves a wide range of issues.... . it is difficult to mobilize." "And if we go for fishermen, does the Mongolian side have any fishing boats or fishermen?" Later, on the basis of the Chinese side's suggestion, the two sides formed a group to negotiate on this matter. at the end of April 1955, the relevant departments started the organization of workers going to Mongolia in the three northeastern provinces. In that year, the first 8,200 workers went to Mongolia. Phoenix Blog XAJ dJ/L8slb
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Vietnam's offer of assistance to the country was also very early. On a material marked May 15, 1951, the Vietnamese request is straightforward: "We are in a period of green and yellow, without help rice will be cut off. ...... Therefore, we earnestly request you to help us with another 1,500 tons to 2,000 tons of rice to tide us over this difficult time." Obviously, before this, our country has already supported Vietnam food. Phoenix Blog I;x IX6H:E
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The table of aid to Vietnam has raisins and winePhoenix Blog 'W:E&y f2i6W
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The reporter's rough statistics, by the end of 1960, our country to provide assistance to The other countries: North Korea, Cambodia, Nepal, Burma, Mali, Uganda, Congo, Cameroon, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, etc., a ****22 countries. Phoenix blog du)Y.F;CC,a#q;['bU
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China to help Mongolia to build schools, hospitals, sanatoriums, expert guest houses, thermal power plants, glass factories, paper mills, chicken farms, repair bridges, roads, oatmeal seeds, supply of timber, the repair of ancient temples, etc., to aid in the construction of When the equipment for the textile mills could not be provided domestically, we used our scarce foreign exchange to order them from Britain.
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In the annex to the "Protocol between China and Vietnam on China's Aid to Vietnam in 1955", the table of goods that the Chinese side assisted Vietnam, there are 30,000 tons of rice, 300 tons of flour, 5,000 kg of raisins, 180 belts, 1130 cases of wine and vermicelli, cigarettes, proprietary Chinese medicines, medical equipment, etc.; in the table of goods for the aid to build railroads, there are electric stoves, wheelbarrows, telephones, calipers, light bulbs and other things; the agricultural aid projects range from the cultivation of crops, selection of seeds, seed breeding, pest control to the building of veterinary hospitals, manufacturing plants of livestock vaccination chemicals, etc., and there are also 10 rice mills, 2 gasoline depots, match factories, reinforcement of dams, and so on. The 30,000 tons of rice was proposed in a top secret letter from the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Labor Party to the Central Committee of China*** five months before the signing of the protocol, at which time the Central Committee of China*** replied, "Although the domestic supply of rice is also tighter, for the sake of assisting newly liberated brotherly countries, it agrees to allocate the rice as usual." It was also difficult for most Chinese to enjoy raisins and fine wines at that time. Phoenix Blog|$j5MG{!tW~
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In Cambodia, in addition to assisting in the construction of various factories such as cement, textile, wood paneling, paper, steel, and so on, we also helped them to build an art school, a radio station, and to explore for iron ore coal mines.
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gXYv/q\C4\0 On September 30, 1955, at the construction site of the Viet Chih Bridge in aid of Vietnam, due to the strong current, the boat carrying steel cables was tilted into the water, and the 29 year old Chinese foreman and * member Chen Guoping fell into the water in order to save the boat from the "six Vietnamese comrades". Fell into the water, the first for China's foreign aid cause gave his life. In order to report this unfortunate incident and the aftermath, the embassy has sent back three very long telegrams.
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e4fQ'^8@?ce@8a0 African countries only began to establish diplomatic relations with our country one after another at the end of 1958, and assistance to them generally began a few months before the establishment of diplomatic relations. We assisted them in building small and medium-sized industrial projects and farms, and helped them find water and build wells. Food was the thing these countries wanted most from us. From 1959 to 1960, our grain production was reduced for two consecutive years, but we still gave generously to the requests of African countries. For example, in 1960, we assisted Guinea with 10,000 tons of rice, and also announced that we would "provide the Congo with 5,000 to 10,000 tons of wheat or rice".
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b!U+F0@-L0 At this time, the new Chinese government was faced with the mess left by the Republican government after many years of war, and the country's power was limited, but the people of our country still scrimped and saved, overcame many difficulties, and met the requests of various countries one by one. Moreover, our assistance never came with any conditions attached.
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um5i1t.PS0 The demands of the recipient countries are often too big, too much, too urgent
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2@.k kv+h ^/f(|0 Although our country provides the foreign aid, and we give the people things, but the negotiation with the recipient countries on foreign aid is not easy. Negotiations have not been easy, and there have been some problems with implementation. Phoenix Blog;p't%|m[*D'?
w!W)B5?t$\!n"[ K/V Z8u}0 February 16, 1955, China and Mongolia for China's assistance to Mongolia's labor force began negotiations. "By the time of the official signing on April 7, *** 14 talks were held." Why did they have to negotiate so many times? Originally, the Mongolian side of the proposal, China to go to the workers, "hope to bring their families to Mongolia, the longer the period of stay, the better", the duration of "not less than five years", and Mongolian employees with the same pay for the same work, and "the wages received in Mongolia, do not send back to domestic The wages received will be spent in Mongolia and not sent back to China". In the report of my negotiating delegation to the State Council, there is this paragraph: "During the negotiation, many of our opinions were accepted only after many explanations, such as we proposed that the duration of the workers' work should be three years, we sent Chinese cadres to lead the team and set up the Workers' Affairs Office in Mongolia, and we permitted the workers to return 30% of the wages in cash to support their families and deposit the remaining balance into the Bank of Mongolia, which would be included in the remittance of money in the non-trade account and so on. All these issues have been negotiated over and over again." Phoenix Blog*Hg nRV)\Ox3lV?
U*@2^[r~d~;I0 Such problems don't seem to have occurred only in aid to individual countries. a 1960 dossier says: "From the actual situation over the past few years, it appears that a number of projects proposed by the recipient countries for our help in constructing often exceeded the actual needs and possible conditions of their countries. and possible conditions." "The projects for which they make requests for assistance are often too big, too many and too urgent. At the same time, in accordance with our country's actual situation, there are certain limits to our ability to provide economic and technical assistance to foreign countries." Phoenix Blog6ER9u-C_)fR
$M;ps3G He#z(v0 Because the requests of the recipient countries are often too urgent, "so that the time for the completion of some projects and the time for the delivery of the equipment are stipulated to be rather urgent, which brings certain difficulties to the implementation of the agreement." At the end of 1958, a summary of foreign aid work At the end of 1958, a file summarizing the foreign aid work listed some existing problems: "individual projects in aid to Mongolia were too large in scale and high in standard", "the brick and tile factory was delayed for half a year due to the fact that the original agreement was too tight, and the domestic design and equipment manufacturing could not be completed on schedule", "it was estimated that the vegetable farms were to be built in a hurry", "so that some projects had to be completed and equipment delivered in a relatively tight time frame, causing certain difficulties in implementing the agreement". "It is estimated that the vegetables produced by the vegetable farms are more expensive than local meat prices." According to the agreement, China should supply 60,000 spindles of textile machinery and equipment to the DPRK in 1958, but "due to the current lack of high-quality steel, the DPRK's requirements could not be met as early as possible."
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Therefore, at that time, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and some other departments proposed that "the assistance to the brotherly countries ...... is to help and push them to be self-reliant, and to promote their economic independence and autonomy." Foreign aid should "carry out the policy of seeking truth from facts, living within one's means, and flowing slowly, so that it can be adapted to local conditions, with small and medium-sized ones as the mainstay, and with a high degree of speed and economy".
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11 years of foreign aid total: 4.028 billion yuan
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" From 1950 until the end of June 1960, China reached agreements with certain brotherly countries and Asian and African nationalist countries on the provision by China of non-reimbursable assistance and loans totaling 4.028 billion yuan RMB, of which 3.539 billion yuan RMB was given to the brotherly countries (2.579 billion yuan RMB of non-reimbursable assistance and 960 million yuan RMB of loans) and 489 million yuan RMB was given to the nationalist countries (238 million yuan RMB of non-reimbursable assistance and 251 million in loans). Of the total aid, 986 million dollars was spent on the provision of sets of equipment, of which 962 million dollars was to the brotherly countries; and 24.7 million dollars to the nationalist countries."
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These are the statistics that Li Qiang, then Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, reported on July 1, 1960, to the National Foreign Affairs Conference. His speech, titled "Foreign Economic and Technical Assistance in the Past Few Years," was marked with the words "top secret material to be withdrawn after the meeting. "46 years later, the speech was unveiled to the public with a cover printed with a file number. How much did the 4.028 billion yuan of foreign aid account for in China's total economic output at that time? According to the China Statistical Yearbook, this figure is close to 1/10 of the 42.74 billion yuan planned for national infrastructure investment during the First Five-Year Plan period from 1953 to 1957. phoenix blog+](\2M?s[F#h
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At that time, our The "brotherly countries" were the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and 11 socialist countries such as Vietnam and North Korea that established diplomatic relations with us soon after the founding of New China. According to diplomatic records, in the "brotherly countries" in Europe, during the 11 years, China has only a small amount of assistance to Albania and Hungary, Czechoslovakia and other countries. Therefore, most of the 3.539 billion dollars of assistance to the "brotherly countries" was shared by three countries, namely, Vietnam, Mongolia and the DPRK. The "nationalist countries" receiving our assistance are mainly Cambodia, Yemen, Nepal, Algeria and Sudan. Phoenix Blog h:fW9@%n#r "I
&V^Q5hYKUU3P0 Li Qiang also introduced, China's foreign assistance to provide complete sets of equipment from 1955, "to the end of June 1960, in accordance with the provisions of the economic and technological agreements and protocols signed by our country with nine countries, foreign aid complete sets of projects for 182 items, which to 'brotherly countries', the majority of which were shared with the 'nationalist countries'. Of these, 165 were for 'brotherly countries' (8 for North Korea, 100 for Vietnam, 53 for Mongolia, 3 for Albania, and 1 for Czechoslovakia)." Of the remaining 17 items of assistance to "Afro-Asian nationalist countries", Cambodia, with which we have just established diplomatic relations for two years, received 8 items. "*** sent 7,558 engineers and technicians and 25,566 construction workers. ......*** received and trained 2,864 foreign interns." Phoenix Blog gLHq+_5HoF%\\
l Z}9z$\2V0B0 China has also actively participated in humanitarian aid
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0eD`0hdPuC-c {0 Looking back through the archives of the foreign aid of half a century ago, we can't help but think of the international environment that our country was in. Until the end of 1960, only 38 countries had established diplomatic relations with China, of which 10 were established only after July 1958. The new China is peace-loving and hopes to create a neighboring and international environment conducive to domestic construction, and hopes to continuously expand its friendship and cooperation with all countries in the world. A number of files mention: "It is a serious political task to do a good job in foreign aid. 'Foreign aid' expansion? played a positive role."
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It is based on such a starting point, our country has also actively participated in international humanitarian relief activities. A rescue money for the handling of the process, but also recorded in detail in the diplomatic archives. The first time I saw the world, I was in the middle of it, and I was in the middle of it, and I was in the middle of it, and I was in the middle of it, and I was in the middle of it, and I was in the middle of it, and I was in the middle of it. Iran earthquake, our country also quickly provided relief.
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In 1952, India suffered a disaster, China has been in the name of the Red Cross, the National Federation of Trade Unions and other four mass organizations, two times each donated 2 billion yuan. in August 1953, northern India flooding into the floods, the Central Committee of the Steering Committee for International Activities Suggested that the central government, China's aid to India 1.05 billion yuan, when * President learned that the Soviet Union donated 250,000 rubles (about 1.7 billion yuan), instructed that "the amount of money should be increased to 1.5 billion or 2 billion yuan", the relevant departments finally set at 1.5 billion yuan. Compared with the United States at that time to India donated 10,000 U.S. dollars, 2 million pounds of milk powder, the United Kingdom donated 500 pounds, South Africa donated 100 pounds, our assistance of 1.5 billion yuan is also a lot.