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1h ago

AidData Finds $2.2 Trillion in Chinese State Lending, With U.S. as Top Recipient

The dataset depicts a shift toward wealthy markets with state-backed loans targeting critical infrastructure, minerals, technology.

A pedestrian walks past the headquarters of the People's Bank of China in Beijing last month.
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The national flag flies in front of China's central bank in Beijing in 2022. In Canada, China has built a US$21.3-billion portfolio of official-sector finance, according to an investigation by U.S.-based AidData.
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Overview

  • AidData’s reconstruction tracks roughly $2.2 trillion in official Chinese credit from 2000 to 2023 across about 30,000 projects in 217 countries, far exceeding prior public estimates.
  • The United States received more than $200 billion across nearly 2,500 projects, including financing linked to LNG facilities, pipelines, power transmission, airport terminals, and credit lines for major corporations.
  • Researchers say Chinese state lenders increasingly routed money through offshore branches and shell entities in places such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and Delaware, obscuring the origin of funds in public datasets.
  • Lending has shifted toward upper‑middle and high‑income countries and concentrated on critical minerals, infrastructure, and high‑tech assets, including financing tied to acquisitions of firms like OmniVision, the Paslin Company, and Ingram Micro.
  • China remained the world’s largest official creditor in 2023 with about $140 billion in new lending, and the findings are fueling tighter investment screening and proposals to expand Western financing tools such as the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.