{"id":3183,"date":"2025-07-21T19:25:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T19:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/declining-western-aid-creates-opportunity-for-china-to-expand-development-footprint-in-south-east-asia\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T19:25:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T19:25:36","slug":"declining-western-aid-creates-opportunity-for-china-to-expand-development-footprint-in-south-east-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/declining-western-aid-creates-opportunity-for-china-to-expand-development-footprint-in-south-east-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"Declining Western aid creates opportunity for China to expand development footprint in South-east Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SYDNEY, July 21 — China is set to expand its influence over South-east Asia’s development as the Trump administration and other Western donors slash aid, a study by an Australian think tank said Sunday.<\/p>\n

The region is in an “uncertain moment”, facing cuts in official development finance from the West as well as “especially punitive” US trade tariffs, the Sydney-based Lowy Institute said.<\/p>\n

“Declining Western aid risks ceding a greater role to China, though other Asian donors will also gain in importance,” it said.<\/p>\n

Total official development finance to South-east Asia — including grants, low-rate loans and other loans — grew “modestly” to US$29 billion (RM122.8 billion) in 2023, the annual report said.<\/p>\n

But US President Donald Trump has since halted about US$60 billion in development assistance — most of the United States’ overseas aid programme.<\/p>\n

Seven European countries — including France and Germany — and the European Union have announced US$17.2 billion in aid cuts to be implemented between 2025 and 2029, it said.<\/p>\n

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And the United Kingdom has said it is reducing annual aid by US$7.6 billion, redirecting government money towards defence.<\/p>\n

Based on recent announcements, overall official development finance to Southeast Asia will fall by more than US$2 billion by 2026, the study projected.<\/p>\n

“These cuts will hit South-east Asia hard,” it said.<\/p>\n

“Poorer countries and social sector priorities such as health, education, and civil society support that rely on bilateral aid funding are likely to lose out the most.” Higher-income countries already capture most of the region’s official development finance, said the institute’s South-east Asia Aid Map report.<\/p>\n

Poorer countries such as East Timor, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are being left behind, creating a deepening divide that could undermine long-term stability, equity and resilience, it warned.<\/p>\n

Despite substantial economic development across most of South-east Asia, around 86 million people still live on less than US$3.65 a day, it said.<\/p>\n

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‘Global concern’<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The centre of gravity in South-east Asia’s development finance landscape looks set to drift East, notably to Beijing but also Tokyo and Seoul,” the study said.<\/p>\n

As trade ties with the United States have weakened, South-east Asian countries’ development options could shrink, it said, leaving them with less leverage to negotiate favourable terms with Beijing.<\/p>\n

“China’s relative importance as a development actor in the region will rise as Western development support recedes,” it said.<\/p>\n

Beijing’s development finance to the region rose by US$1.6 billion to US$4.9 billion in 2023 — mostly through big infrastructure projects such as rail links in Indonesia and Malaysia, the report said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, China’s infrastructure commitments to Southeast Asia surged fourfold to almost US$10 billion, largely due to the revival of the Kyaukphyu Deep Sea Port project in Myanmar.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Western alternative infrastructure projects had failed to materialise in recent years, the study said.<\/p>\n

“Similarly, Western promises to support the region’s clean energy transition have yet to translate into more projects on the ground — of global concern given coal-dependent South-east Asia is a major source of rapidly growing carbon emissions.” — AFP  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Declining Western aid creates opportunity for China to expand development footprint in South-east Asia<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SYDNEY, July 21 — China is set to expand its influence over South-east Asia’s development as the Trump administration and other Western donors slash aid, a study by an Australian think tank said Sunday. The region is in an “uncertain moment”, facing cuts in official development finance from the West as well as “especially punitive”…<\/p>\n

Read More “Declining Western aid creates opportunity for China to expand development footprint in South-east Asia”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}