Popular Summary of the Key Points
Recently, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released shocking data: By 2025, official aid from Western wealthy countries to poor countries is expected to plummet by 23%, the largest annual decrease on record. The United States alone has cut its aid by 56.9%, accounting for three-quarters of the total reduction, and even the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been in operation for over 60 years, has been shut down. This is not just a routine government budget cut; it marks the beginning of the collapse of the global development order that the West has built on the basis of aid for more than 70 years since World War II. We are entering a “post-aid era.” The old rules, where the West stood on a moral high ground, dictating what constituted “qualified development” and poor countries had no choice but to accept conditions, are no longer valid. In the future, global development cooperation will be characterized by equal participation from multiple stakeholders, and developing countries will finally have the opportunity to choose their own development paths.
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Detailed Explanation of Each Point
1. Do You Think Western Aid Is Just Charity? It’s Actually an Invisible Reinhold on Global Governance
Many people think that Western donations of money and goods to poor countries are a manifestation of the moral principle of “rich countries helping poor countries.” However, this aid system has always been a tool for the United States to maintain global order, with three underlying motives:
- The first motive is to use morality as a cover, presenting the West as a “civilized and responsible” leader with the sole authority to define what development means. Countries that follow Western rules are considered “progressive,” while those that do not are seen as “failed.”
- The second motive is to use aid as a stepping stone, accompanied by a series of hidden conditions. For example, in the 1980s, Western countries provided loans to poor countries, demanding that they sell state-owned enterprises, fully open their markets, and refrain from subsidizing local businesses. In essence, this allowed Western capital to freely exploit resources and dump goods, effectively trading a small amount of money for the economic sovereignty of these countries.
- The third motive is to exert intellectual hegemony. Western aid agencies fund global development research, university collaborations, and data collection, defining what development issues are valid, what methods are scientific, and what indicators indicate poverty reduction. Even after aid stops, many scholars and policymakers in these countries are already influenced by Western standards, making it difficult to break free from this ideological dependency.
2. This Dramatic Drop in Aid Is No Small Matter: The West Has Destroyed the Framework It Built Over 70 Years
This aid system has been on the decline for some time. More than a decade ago, the West tried to include emerging developing countries like China and India in its aid framework, ostensibly to promote joint global development, but in reality, it aimed to make these countries follow Western rules. China, India, and Brazil have since withdrawn from these cooperation mechanisms, significantly weakening the legitimacy of the system. The U.S.’s decision to cut aid and shut down its aid agencies is a direct blow to this framework. The West once pretended that helping poor countries was its responsibility; now, the Trump administration openly states that aid will no longer be provided, and instead, it aims to turn relationships with developing countries into opportunities for “investing to make money for Americans and securing strategic resources,” tearing off the last shred of its moral facade.
3. The Idea That “All Countries in the World Are Poor Countries Waiting to Be Saved” Is Obsolete
The concept of all non-developing countries being “recipient countries” no longer holds true. Developing countries have now been divided into three categories:
- One-third of them no longer need aid. Countries like China, India, and Brazil have become providers of development assistance. Even if they still receive small amounts of aid, their economic growth relies on their own tax revenues, foreign investment, and industrial upgrading. Western aid has little impact on their economies.
- Another third of them use aid as a supplement. These are mainly middle-income countries in Africa and Southeast Asia, for whom aid accounts for 1%-5% of their GDP. What they really need is access to Western markets, technology transfer, and assistance with infrastructure development—things that the traditional aid system never provided.
- The final third of countries truly depend on aid for survival. These include fragile nations after conflicts, the poorest countries in Africa with virtually no government revenue, and small Pacific island nations with populations in the tens of thousands. For them, aid accounts for 20%-40% of their GDP, and their governments and essential services (such as schools and hospitals) rely on it. The significant reduction in aid will hit these countries the hardest.
4. The “Post-aid Era” Does Not Mean the End of All Aid: Future Global Development Cooperation Will Follow Four New Paths
Many believe that the end of aid means the end of all forms of international financial cooperation. However, this is not the case. Future development cooperation will take on four different forms, each with a different approach:
- The first is humanitarian aid, such as disaster relief and assistance to refugees. This is a universal concern and is no longer exclusive to the West. Countries like China and Turkey are now key players in this area.
- The second is traditional aid, which will continue but on a much smaller scale, focusing on the most vulnerable and least developed countries, without the accompanying interference in internal affairs.
- The third is cooperation on global public goods, such as addressing climate change, pandemics, and biodiversity protection. These are challenges that all countries must face together, with each contributing according to their capabilities.
- The fourth is equal economic and trade cooperation. This is already the mainstream of global development, as seen in initiatives like China’s Belt and Road Initiative and South-South cooperation, where countries are equal partners, exchanging resources and expertise without the need for Western-defined standards.
5. Practical Implications for Ordinary People
The collapse of the old aid system means that we are no longer constrained by Western definitions of development. Developing countries are no longer limited by Western standards of development. For example, when Chinese entrepreneurs go to Africa to engage in agricultural cooperation or set up factories in Southeast Asia, they are not bound by Western aid rules or ideological norms. The fairness and freedom of global development will be greater than ever before.