Silk Road Diplomacy
Deconstructing Beijing's toolkit to influence South and Central Asia
Influencing the Narrative
How the Chinese government mobilizes students and media to burnish its image
Explore Beijing’s Public Diplomacy
Quantifying the Chinese government’s reach and influence
Mapping China's Global Investments and Inequality
Geocoded Chinese development projects and the diffusion of economic activity in developing countries
China's Global Development Footprint
By the Numbers: The clearest look yet at Chinese official finance worldwide

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Featured Publications

Policy Report

Silk Road Diplomacy: Deconstructing Beijing's toolkit to influence South and Central Asia

Samantha Custer, Tanya Sethi, Jonathan A. Solis, Joyce Jiahui Lin, Siddhartha Ghose, Anubhav Gupta, Rodney Knight, Austin Baehr

2019-12-10

Policy Report

Influencing the Narrative: How the Chinese government mobilizes students and media to burnish its image

Samantha Custer, Mihir Prakash, Jonathan A. Solis, Rodney Knight, Joyce Jiahui Lin

2019-12-09

Working Paper
64

Connective Financing: Chinese Infrastructure Projects and the Diffusion of Economic Activity in Developing Countries

Richard Bluhm, Axel Dreher, Andreas Fuchs, Bradley Parks, Austin Strange, Michael Tierney

2018-09-11

Note: an updated version of this paper has been published as a new AidData Working Paper.

Policy Report

Ties That Bind: Quantifying China's public diplomacy and its "good neighbor" effect

Samantha Custer, Brooke Russell, Matthew DiLorenzo, Mengfan Cheng, Siddhartha Ghose, Jacob Sims, Jennifer Turner, Harsh Desai

2018-06-27

Journal Article

Apples and Dragon Fruits: The Determinants of Aid and Other Forms of State Financing from China to Africa

International Studies Quarterly

Axel Dreher, Andreas Fuchs, Bradley C Parks, Austin M Strange, Michael J Tierney

2018-02-01

Note: A version of this article was previously published as an AidData Working Paper.

Working Paper
46

Aid, China, and Growth: Evidence from a New Global Development Finance Dataset

Axel Dreher, Andreas Fuchs, Bradley Parks, Austin M. Strange, Michael J. Tierney

2017-10-10

Update: A revised version of this paper is forthcoming in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

In the News

South China Morning Post

Debt-laden Angola gets relief from creditor nations of the Paris Club under G20 plan

September 19, 2020

Taipei Times

"Walter Lohman On Taiwan: Transparency and the People’s Republic of China "

August 31, 2020

The Diplomat

The China-India Contest in the Middle East

July 21, 2020

Business Tech Africa

China, Africa and debt

July 16, 2020

William & Mary

Tracking China: AidData Sheds Light on Chinese Foreign Aid

July 10, 2020

Council on Foreign Relations

As Africa Faces COVID-19, Chinese Debt Relief is a Welcome Development

June 30, 2020

The First Tranche

October 2020

AidData wins two-year Ford Foundation grant to close the evidence gap on China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Ford Foundation grants AidData $200,000 to examine Chinese development finance.

Ebola Response workers stand outside the Chinese Ebola treatment unit (ETU) in Monrovia, Liberia, during a ceremony as Liberia's last Ebola patient was released on 5 March 2015
August 2020

Chinese infrastructure investments shift economic activity, reduce spatial inequalities, finds new paper

The paper shows that Chinese projects relocate economic activity from city centers to peripheries.

Urael station of Addis Ababa’s Chinese-financed light rail. Photo by Nebyu derseh tenaw, licensed under (CC BY-SA 4.0).
March 2020

Powerful lessons for global development

How much foreign direct investment are China and Russia putting into low- and middle-income countries? How much of China’s foreign aid supports their own strategic economic development? These are just some of the questions students are helping to answer at AidData.

December 2019

Beijing's public diplomacy spending in South and Central Asia quantified and evaluated

AidData, a research lab at William & Mary, today released new data and analysis capturing the results of the Chinese government's strategic public diplomacy efforts in 13 countries.

The leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) take part in a photo session before the 2019 SCO summit. Photo from the Office of the President of Russia, in the public domain.
December 2019

New report, dashboard captures Beijing’s influence in East Asia & the Pacific

New AidData report details how Beijing mobilizes media and students to bolster China’s image abroad.

The news center of the 2018 Shanghai International Import Expo buzzes with Chinese and foreign media workers. Photo courtesy Xinhua News via Presidencia El Salvador, in the public domain.
February 2019

Financier of first resort: China’s bid to be lender of choice for the developing world

In a new book published today, we examine how Beijing proactively seeks investment opportunities for its excess capital overseas to advance its national interests.

Recent Datasets

Chinese Public Diplomacy Activities

China’s Public Diplomacy in South and Central Asia, Version 1.0

Published

2020-10-19

This dataset provides an initial quantitative look into China’s public diplomacy activities in the South and Central Asia region between 2000-2018, as featured in the Silk Road Diplomacy report.

Chinese Public Diplomacy Activities

China’s Public Diplomacy Dashboard Dataset, Version 1.0

Published

2019-12-09

This dataset is composed of first-of-its-kind quantitative data—on China’s public diplomacy efforts from two of AidData’s reports, Ties That Bind and Influencing the Narrative—that is available through AidData’s China’s Public Diplomacy Dashboard.

Geocoded China Data

AidData's Geocoded Global Chinese Official Finance, Version 1.1.1

Published

2018-09-11

This dataset geolocates Chinese Government-financed projects that were implemented between 2000-2014. It captures 3,485 projects worth $273.6 billion in total official financing. The dataset includes both Chinese aid and non-concessional official financing.

Chinese Public Diplomacy Activities

China’s Public Diplomacy in East Asia and Pacific, Version 1.0

Published

2018-06-27

This dataset provides an initial quantitative look into China’s public diplomacy activities in the East Asia and Pacific region between 2000-2016, as featured in the Ties That Bind report.

Global China Data

AidData's Global Chinese Official Finance Dataset, 2000-2014, Version 1.0

Published

2017-10-11

This dataset tracks the known universe of overseas Chinese official finance between 2000-2014, capturing 4,373 records totaling $354.4 billion. The data includes both Chinese aid and non-concessional official financing. For geolocated data on Chinese project locations, see AidData's Geocoded Global Chinese Official Finance Dataset, Version 1.1.1.

Geocoded China Data

AidData's Chinese Official Finance to Africa Dataset, 2000-2012, Version 1.1.1

Published

2017-01-12

This is a sub-nationally georeferenced dataset of Chinese official finance activities that spans 50 African countries over the 2000-2012 period. It includes 1,952 Chinese development finance projects across 3,545 physical locations.

Related Events

Ties That Bind
August 1, 2018
Influencing the Narrative
February 11, 2020
Silk Road Diplomacy
December 9, 2019