Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2017

 

The International Political Implications of Chinese and American Foreign Aid： The Case of Voting in the United Nations General Assembly

(Abstract)

 

Pang Xun and Wang Shuai

 

The influence that China’s rapid rise has exerted upon Sino-American relationships and the existing international order is an important theoretical topic in current research on international relations. We conducted an empirical study to see whether and how China has affected the results gained by the US use of aid for “vote buying” in UNGA. The results show that China’s foreign aid has used the mechanisms of foreign policy preferences, fragility and credibility to weaken the US ability to control voting in UNGA through its foreign aid. However, this is not a subjective strategic choice on China’s part but the objective result of its economic development. If we start from the foreign aid gaming of China and the US in the international political context, looking directly at the structural conflicts and competition actually existing between the two will not only help us understand the difficulty and obstacles confronting China’s future development path, but will also help us grasp the necessity and difficulty of risk control in Sino-American relations.