Analysts have said that Donald Trump has had a devastating impact on humanitarian aid and development programs around the world even before USAID’s closure, but has also understood the US chief rival, China.
The result of a sudden 90-day suspension of USAID’s financing-which is 40 % of global foreign aid-has been facing the defense: Employees closed from the offices, left to rot the humanitarian shipment, and Life -saving aid stopped. Worldwide, with the help of USAID, the development programs are scared, a warning to the destructive threats of famine, death and increased disease.
Trump’s plan includes the merger in the USAID Department for over 60 years, which shrinks its workforce and links its costs with Trump’s priorities. But analysts say it is working against an important priority.
“[The US is handing] China is a great opportunity to expand its influence on a silver plate, when China’s economy is not performing very well, “Huang Yanzhong, senior fellow of the Council for Foreign Relations, said –
“What Trump is doing is primarily to give China a great opportunity to re -consider, renew soft power projects, and return to Transglobel Leadership.”
Multiple analysts described USAID shuttering as “self -inflicted wounds”.
The ongoing American dynamics has dominated China’s competition, and a major battlefield is in the development sector as Washington and its allies have fought against Beijing for influence in the global south.
In 2018, the Chinese government formed the Stand China International Development Cooperation Agency, or China aid to pause China’s spending, including its foreign investment program, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). – Beijing does not reveal foreign aid budget but a study by William & Mary’s Global Research Institute found that China gave 3 1.34tn via BRI to developing countries between 2000 and 2021 – According to an official press release at that time, the new agency will further enhance the impact of aid as an important foreign policy device.
Although China Aid works differently with USAID, with more focus on loans and highly visible infrastructure projects rather than contributing with local organizations, both agencies have the same goals – the soft strength and influence of their government. Spread the influence.
It is particularly focused on the Pacific, where the United States, Australia and other allies are trying to counter China’s efforts to make security deals with small but strategies.
Melissa Consley Tyler, Executive Director of Asia Pacific Development, Diplomacy and Defense Dialogue, told the Guardian that she knows about at least one certified case in the region where China Aid has already received funds through USAID Step has taken to supply.
“The United States and Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, we have a keen interest in living in the world of liberal democracies and economies,” said George Ingram, a senior fellow and USAID official at the Brookings Institution Center for Sustainable Development.
“Like Russia, China is trying to advance an authoritarian world. Our interests are opposed to total.
For now, any new aid from China will mostly be saved by USAID programs, such as the example of the Pacific. Consley Tyler said, but below this track that can change.
“As a development actor, my biggest problem about China, the way she often attracts good governance and accountability in the country where she works. I have no problem with being a development party of any country … This is an amazing thing.
For the recipient countries, the power of bargaining was now likely to be very low. With the departure of USAID, the programs that had earlier received the benefits of two superpowers who competed to fund their projects, they will have to take only what they can get.
“They do not need to significantly increase foreign aid levels of financing to change the United States as a leader in this sector,” Huang said. “And… his story about international development, about how much China is, and more convinced. So it also helps promote China’s soft strength faster.
Consley Tyler said the impact of USAID’s suspension is much worse than what is being reported as many program workers are hoping that if they remain silent, the funds can be restored at the end of 90 days. Is
But even if it is, the widespread, confidence is lost.
“Who will allow himself to rely on US aid if it is dizzy, if it does not distinguish between allies and opponents, if it can only be closed on a political sink?” He said.
Jason Lo’s additional research
