Foreign aid is shrinking, but it is not disappearing. Even after the sharpest annual decline on record, OECD donors still provided $174.3 billion in assistance in 2025. This includes $29 billion from the United States, despite the slashing of 83% of US Agency for International Development (USAID) programs by Donald Trump’s administration. Moreover, wars, epidemics, displacement, and geopolitical competition will ensure that rich countries continue to spend money abroad, whether for humanitarian reasons or in pursuit of their own interests.

Many people find China’s secrecy regarding foreign aid perplexing. To understand Chinese foreign aid policy requires understanding of the complex goals China tries to achieve with aid and of the complex intended, or unintended, effects after aid is distributed. Foreign aid has always been a thorny issue between the Chinese general public and the government, because of the clash between China’s identity as a developing country and its desire for international recognition.

China's foreign aid apparatus has long been shrouded in mystery. But this week, a trove of data released by the College of William and Mary's AidData brought a

China and the U.S. could set an example for international cooperation in fighting epidemics and call on developed and developing countries alike to cooperate in combating Ebola so as to avoid panic in Africa and the world at large.

China has now joined the United States and Britain in a long overdue effort to help reduce Ebola fatalities in West Africa. Together with Western efforts and funds, China may help end today’s scourge of Ebola, writes Robert Rotberg.