Susan V. Lawrence, Thomas Lum

According to many experts, China’s foreign economic assistance and investments have complicated U.S. and other Western efforts to curb human rights abuses and promote democracy in places such as Angola and Sudan in Africa, Burma and Cambodia in Southeast Asia, and Fiji in the Southwest Pacific. The United States government has taken preliminary steps to discuss and coordinate development assistance and projects with China, in order to promote “donor best practices” and convergence between Chinese foreign assistance practices and those of major bilateral and multilateral aid donors.