Good Will Hunters

Welcome to Episode 80 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. The focus of today’s episode is Chinese Aid, with our guests Ji Hongbo and Denghua Zhang. China’s aid has been on the rise for years, not only in the Pacific, but around the world. And with China-US rivalry taken to a new level as a result of COVID-19, China’s aid is set to become more important and more controversial than ever. We often hear from experts on China about Chinese aid, but rarely from Chinese experts themselves. Yet given China’s complexity, not to mention the language barriers, hearing from those who understand the country and its systems is obviously critical In this episode I chat with two experts who have both worked in the past for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ji Hongbo is the Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in China, in Canberra for the year at the ANU, but normally based in Beijing. Hongbo’s prior experience includes 5 years of diplomatic experience with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs