Into the Breach: Will China Step Up as the U.S. Retreats on Global Development? explores the implications of the United States downsizing its development portfolio and the likelihood that China will step into the vacuum.

Power Playbook: Beijing’s Bid to Secure Overseas Transition Minerals systematically tracks China’s state-directed investments for critical mineral operations in BRI countries over a 22-year period. It separates fact from fiction to decode China’s “playbook” for transition minerals, documenting how Beijing leverages a massive stockpile of foreign exchange reserves to expand its control over key segments of the global supply chain.

An underlying dataset captures $56.9 billion of Chinese official financing in 19 BRI participant countries from 2000 to 2021 for the extraction or processing of copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel, and rare earth elements.

Deep-dive profiles are available into significant Chinese-financed critical mineral operations at Kinsenda, Las Bambas, Tenke Fungurume, Toromocho, and Sicomines. The profiles provide granular information about each mine's funding, acquisition history, ownership, implementation, ESG challenges, and risk mitigation.

In 2024, AidData published two reports that decode the money, relationships, and outcomes of Chinese development investments and media influence in the Philippines across two decades.

Beijing's Big Bet on the Philippines tracks $9.1 billion in state-directed financing for 200+ infrastructure projects, spotlighting Beijing’s revealed priorities and its performance over time.

Investing in Narratives uncovers how China has shaped the Philippine media narrative around its infrastructure investments through state-run media, content-sharing partnerships, journalist training, and more.

Conducted by AidData in collaboration with Asia Society Philippines

AidData's Geospatial Global Chinese Development Finance Dataset, Version 3.0 was published in Nature's Scientific Data. This dataset captures geospatial features for 9,405 projects across 148 low- and middle-income countries supported by Chinese grant and loan commitments worth over $830 billion. The methodology, data, and code have been made publicly available to facilitate replication and use.

The details of China’s development-financed AI exports remain elusive. To fill this gap, researchers from the RAND Corporation and AidData jointly built a database on China’s AI export projects funded with official development financing. The resulting study, China's AI Exports: Technology Distribution and Data Safety, analyzes this new data source to explore questions around distribution, technology, financing, and data safety.

The Harboring Global Ambitions report leverages new data and satellite imagery to explore China's global ports footprints and implications for future naval bases. An accompanying dataset tracks 123 seaport projects worth $29.9 billion financed by Chinese state-owned entities to construct or expand 78 ports in 46 countries from 2000-2021.

The Corridors of Power report analyzes Beijing's efforts to cultivate economic, social, and network ties with 13 countries in South and Central Asia (SCA) over two decades. These ties foster interdependence with China that have the potential to both empower and constrain SCA countries, while threatening to displace or diminish the influence of regional rivals such as Russia, India, and the United States.

The Banking on the Belt and Road report introduces a uniquely comprehensive dataset of China's global development finance. With new updates to China.AidData.org, you can search detailed records for 13,427 projects worth $843 billion across 165 countries from 2000 to 2017.

Updates to AidData's China's Global Public Diplomacy Dashboard let users dive into China’s soft power toolkit for 38 countries across Asia and the Pacific. With these new updates, you can track China's financial diplomacy at the subnational level and access detailed country profiles for a bird's-eye view of Beijing's influence.

AidData publishes its groundbreaking report, How China Lends, and accompanying search tool to provide a rare look into the original texts of 100 debt contracts between the Chinese government and 24 low- and middle-income countries.

Co-published with the Center for Global Development, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and the Peterson Institute for International Economics

AidData researchers contribute a chapter to the National Bureau of Asian Research's book, Strategic Asia 2019: China’s Expanding Strategic Ambitions.