Research On China's Foreign Aid System And Its Improvement

As an important part of international relations,foreign aid is regarded as an important tool for foreign policy by countries around the world.Being a developing country,China has always insisted on providing assistance to other developing countries within its ability while striving for its own development.China's foreign aid has enhanced the ability of recipient countries to develop independently,enriched and improved the lives of local people,and promoted economic development and social progress.China's foreign aid has consolidated and developed friendly relations and economic and trade cooperation between China and other developing countries as well as enhancing China's international status.In addition,China's rich foreign aid practices and aid concepts which are different from those of Western countries have enriched the international development assistance system and provided China's programs for global governance.While promoting South-South cooperation,it has made positive contributions to the common development of human society.In the past 70 years,the content,form,scale and system of China's foreign aid have undergone changes,which are adapted to the diplomatic work in different periods and has played an important role in safeguarding national interests and expanding diplomatic space.Today,China has become the fourth largest foreign aid country in the world,witnessing the increasing influence in the field of international development assistance and even global governance.The scale and influence of the aid of emerging aid countries represented by China have also expanded and become a force to be reckoned with on the stage of international development cooperation.The pattern of international development assistance has undergone profound changes.At the same time,China has actively promoted the “Belt and Road Initiative”and fully participated in global development governance.However,for foreign aid,which is an important starting point for advancing the “Belt and Road”,there are still some areas that need improvement,mainly manifested in the following aspects: First,there is not a set of special laws for foreign aid in China at present,only some scattered departmental regulations.As a kind of government's foreign exchange behavior,foreign aid is an important part of state power.Therefore,its function must has corresponding legal authorization.Only in this way can foreign aid be given strong legitimacy and avoid arbitrariness.With the relevant provisions of the basic law of foreign aid,foreign aid will be more transparent,and the domestic people and the international community will have more understanding of China's foreign aid and avoid accusations that are not in line with the reality.Second,the decision-making and management system of foreign aid are not perfect.The management is fragmented,and there is still a big gap in the actual needs of foreign aid.Third,the supervision and evaluation system is not perfect.At present,there are only supervision and evaluation organized by the foreign aid management agency itself(Ministry of Commerce before March 2018 and then replaced by China International Development Cooperation Agency after March 2018)and the supervision and inspection conducted by the Ministry of Finance on the use and management of foreign aid funds,but there is lack of external supervision and evaluation mechanism.From the perspective of international law,foreign aid has applicable basic principles of international law,international treaties and resolutions of international organizations and conferences.More than half of the OECD Development Assistance Committee countries have formulated basic laws on foreign aid.These can provide reference for China's foreign aid legislation.In addition,the more mature organization management system and supervision and evaluation system of traditional aid countries can also be fully used for reference to further improve China's foreign aid system.With the improvement of China's foreign aid system in various fields,China's foreign aid will have greater influence,so as to be able to better set up the international development agenda,lead the norms of international development assistance,and have a greater voice in the international development assistance mechanism.This paper uses historical analysis,comparative analysis and case analysis methods,dividing foreign aid to different stages from the perspective of the system,combined with specific foreign aid case to analyze the shortcomings of foreign aid in the legal and management system.The practices of other countries in the legal system and management system provide advice for China to improve its foreign aid system.At the same time,the improvement of the foreign aid system is upgraded to the level of participation in global development governance.The introduction part of the paper mainly proposes research questions and conducts a comprehensive literature review of the foreign aid research home and abroad.On the basis of grasping the research on this issue in the academic world,this paper proposes the innovation points and research difficulties of this paper.The first chapter defines the basic concepts of foreign aid,institutions,mechanisms,and governance structures.It also introduces the theory of institutional change of new institutionalism,and puts forward the analysis framework applicable to the evolution of China's foreign aid system.The second chapter introduces the evolution of foreign aid system from the perspectives of the division of foreign aid stage,the evolution of regulation and the evolution of management mechanism,and analyzes the evolution logic behind it according to the proposed analysis framework of foreign aid system change.The third chapter analyzes the lack of foreign aid rules and regulations and management system,provides the basis for international regulation of foreign aid legislation,and compares the practices of developed countries in the legal system and management system to provide a reference for China to improve its foreign aid system.The fourth chapter puts forward the logical starting point and principle of system design,analyzes the theoretical logic,value logic,historical logic and practical logic of China's foreign aid system,and on the basis of the above analysis,puts forward the suggestions on the institution system,mechanism construction and guarantee system of foreign aid system.The purpose of institutional improvement is to improve governance capacity and participate in global development governance.This is also the goal of a series of reforms in China.Foreign aid governance is a part of national governance system and a breakthrough to participate in global development governance.Therefore,based on the analysis of the new pattern of global development governance,this chapter discusses how China can better participate in international rule making and global development governance with foreign aid as the starting point.Through the analysis and research of this paper,it can be concluded that it is imperative to improve the foreign aid system.China should further deepen the foreign aid reform,improve the foreign aid legal system,and improve the foreign aid management system to better respond to the changes of international development assistance pattern,and better serve the participation in global governance.