Why Germany Should Continue its Development Cooperation with China

Although bilateral development cooperation officially ended in 2009, China is still the third largest recipient of Germany's official development assistance, a fact that often causes frequent public confusion. The authors argue that German payments to China are not "traditional aid" in the sense of poverty reduction through public funds. Rather, payments to China include profitable promotional loans and serve technical cooperation. In recent years, German-Chinese relations have shifted from development cooperation to mutually profitable international cooperation on equal footing. A premature exit from German−Chinese "development" cooperation would therefore be detrimental to both sides. The authors recommend that the German government should create more transparency about the nature of development assistance to China and thus highlight the "win-win" situation in German-Chinese cooperation.

Kiel Institute Expert