China’s Non-Political Conditionality Aid Principle: Theory and Significance

　　Associate Research Professor, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies

　　Abstract: The origin of China’s non-political conditionality aid principle can be found within the Eight Principles of China’s Foreign Aid, articulated by Premier Zhou Enlai in the 1960s. The change from the previous “non-any political conditionality”[bu fujia renhe zhengzhi tiaojian] to today’s “non-political conditionality” [bu fujia zhengzhi tiaojian] is a mark of China’s open and reform policy since 1978, and is also a due reflection of China’s evolving foreign aid policy. The present policy emphasizes on the principles of equality of state sovereignty, non-interference, and the internalization of economic development. Due to suspicions over, as well as the intentions to constrain, China’s rising influence-in particular in the African continentthe Western countries have been highly critical of China’s non-conditionality aid, at times resorting to distort its images. In the long run, the internationalization of China’s foreign aid is an inevitable outcome, and the principle of non-political conditionality will remain a highly robust and flexible policy.