Foreign aid gave China’s economy a leg up in the 1980s, but political pragmatism did the rest

With pragmatic leaders like Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, China’s opening up was a lesson in how far small investments can go when paired with the right policy framework and a willingness to adapt

As Beijing moves to ease parts of its zero-Covid policy, there is hope these virtues live on

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People walk along a pedestrian street in Shanghai. Time and again, when the national policy framework in place favoured a readiness to learn, adapt and change, rapid progress followed. Photo: AFP

Alan Doss

Alan Doss is a former president of the Kofi Annan Foundation.

Published: 3:30am, 8 Dec 2022Updated: 5:26am, 8 Dec 2022

Foreign aid is often criticised as being a waste of taxpayers’ money. Commentators argue that too often it reinforces the power of the state to the detriment of private enterprise, while facilitating bureaucratic corruption that benefits unaccountable elites.

I certainly agree that aid does not guarantee development progress. However, the recent death of Jiang Zemin, China’s former president, reminded me that aid, when used strategically in a conducive national context, can have an impact far beyond its monetary value.

In 1979, I went to Beijing as the deputy representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which was setting up an aid programme in China, the first in the country since the end of the Soviet aid programme in the ’50s. It was an early, tangible signal of China’s newly-found pragmatism under Deng Xiaoping and his willingness to reach out to external partners to support economic transformation.

Soon after my arrival in Beijing, I accompanied the then UN representative in China, Nessim Shallon, to a luncheon meeting convened by the chairman of the newly established foreign investment commission. Present at the meeting, in addition to the chair of the commission, was the vice-chair, Jiang Zemin, then a relatively unknown functionary. Unlike most meetings with government officials, this one was quite intimate with only an interpreter present.