Mean-spirited tough-guy antics have won Beijing nothing but bad press
Minxin Pei
Minxin Pei is professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a nonresident senior fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
China’s craving for recognition as a benevolent and generous great power is no secret.
Even though it is still a middle-income country where rural residents lack access to safe
drinking water and decent health care, Beijing has dramatically increased its development assistance to poor countries in recent years. In 2019 alone, it gave out nearly $6 billion in grants, according to one estimate.
Some of the gifts China has handed out have funded trophy projects of dubious value in
poor countries, such as a fancy Olympic stadium in Ivory Coast that reportedly cost $240 million. Burundi’s new presidential palace, with a price tag of $22 million, is also a gift from Beijing.
More information: Understanding China’s pettiness complex, Nikkei asia review( 14 July 2021)
