After the Trump administration froze foreign aid in January to Cambodia’s largest demining organisation, which works to clear deadly remnants of past U.S. wars in Southeast Asia, the group secured new funding from China.
China has doubled its contributions over the past three years to the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), which helps clear millions of unexploded munitions in Southeast Asia, said Heng Ratana, who leads the group.
$4.4M From China
On February 5, CMAC said it had received a pledge from Beijing to contribute $4.4 million – surpassing the $2 million donated by the U.S. last year.
Ratana said China understands that such support helps “build up people-to-people networks” and generates economic returns.
Beijing invests heavily in its neighbouring countries and has recently focused on building soft power through goodwill exchanges and diplomatic engagement, according to the Lowy Institute in Sydney, which studies Asia-Pacific geopolitics.
But it does not provide traditional aid on the same scale as Western democratic nations.
China also has little experience providing the specialist assistance – from combating disease outbreaks to distributing humanitarian aid in conflict zones – that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington’s main vehicle for delivering such support, is known for.
90-Day Aid Pause
Trump has halted most U.S. government-funded aid globally for 90 days, while moving to dismantle USAID, which he accused of being run “by a bunch of radical lunatics.”
The move is part of an effort by his administration to slash the federal government workforce and curb spending it considers wasteful.
While the administration has said some funds may be released when the pause expires, a lack of clarity around what could be restored has prompted scores of groups across Asia to abruptly stop work or lay off staff.
The U.S. provided over $894 million in assistance to Southeast Asia in 2023, the latest year for which official data is available.
Freeze Undermines Humanitarian Efforts
The freeze will hobble humanitarian work and human rights at a time of a tussle with China for influence over the region, said Joshua Kurlantzick, an analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank in New York.
“The overall shift will be toward China and away from the U.S. as the U.S. squanders its soft power,” he said, adding that the combination of Beijing providing more assistance and Washington retreating from funding civil society programs “crushes democratic potential in virtually every country in the region.”
A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in response to Reuters’ questions that it offered aid “without political conditions” and in alignment with the needs of its partners. Chinese cooperation with other developing countries would remain steadfast “regardless of changes in the international landscape,” the official said.
The U.S. State Department, whose top diplomat Marco Rubio is now USAID’s acting administrator, did not respond to a request for comment.
China Unlikely To Match US
China, which has its economic troubles at home, is unlikely to match the generosity of the U.S., the world’s largest aid donor.
Instead, Beijing prizes “large-scale infrastructure and investment programs” that are a hallmark of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), said Derek Grossman, an analyst at the RAND Corporation think-tank.
The BRI is China’s $1 trillion infrastructure assistance program, which envisions ports and railroads connecting Asia, Europe and Africa.
China ‘Edged Past US’
The ISEAS-Yusof Ishak think-tank’s annual poll of Southeast Asian decision-makers in 2024 found that China for the first time had “edged past the U.S.” as their preferred partner, a finding attributed in part to pro-China sentiments among Beijing’s BRI partners in Southeast Asia.
China says BRI boosts the economies of developing nations and brings needed modern infrastructure, but it has been accused by critics of lacking transparency, burdening countries with heavy debts, and serving primarily as a tool to expand Chinese economic influence.
Among those who have most enthusiastically embraced BRI is impoverished Laos, which borrowed heavily to finance railways, highways and hydroelectric dams, but has a public debt burden the World Bank considers “unsustainable.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
