US-China Aid Competition in Africa for Political Allegiance

Résumé du livre

Under the historic period when global turbulence and geopolitical events frequently occur, both China and the US desperately need to seek support from various sources outside. One of the strategies is to gain political allegiance through financial aid to Africa. Using 54 African countries who have received financial aid from China and the US from 2000 to 2013, we assess how financial aid from China and the US affected African countries' political allegiance as proxied by their voting behavior in the UN General Assembly. Furthermore, aid competition between China and the US is analyzed to see how aid received from both countries simultaneously affects Africa's political allegiance. This research finds that more financial aid from either China or the US has a causal effect on Africa's higher voting consistency with its donor in the UN General Assembly. The US, can not only crowd out Africa's political support to China directly through financial aid but also frustrate China's political return of aid through established economic and political connections with Africa. Aid from China, however, has little effect on Africa's political allegiance to the US through above channels.