Chinese foreign assistance, explained (Junyi Zhang, Brookings)

China has provided foreign assistance since the 1950s, and is now the largest developing country to provide aid outside of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), a forum of the world’s major donor countries under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Like its foreign policy more broadly, Chinese foreign assistance has adhered to the “Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence” and emphasized the virtue of national self-reliance. At the same time, it has served a strategic purpose alongside other foreign policy priorities.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/07/19-chinese-foreign-assistance-zhang