Chinese Funded Power Plants in Asia, 2020–2023: Source: China’s Global Power Database, Boston University Global Development Policy Center (2025). By William Olichney The Strait of Hormuz crisis, causing the largest ever disruption to global oil markets, has created an unprecedented challenge to Asia’s energy security. Most oil and gas exports passing through the Strait are […]
By Mengdi Yue China and Africa’s economic relationship has continued to evolve over the last decade. Recent milestones include the ten partnership actions announced at the 2024 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the Green Mining and Minerals Initiative launched at the 2025 Johannesburg G20 summit and China’s most recent expansion of its […]
A series of concurrent shocks have posed significant challenges to the African continent, including the recent global pullback by the US whose effects fall disproportionately on Africa. Despite these headwinds, Africa has experienced steady economic growth since 2000. The continent’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates are projected to be 3.9 percent in 2025 […]
By Yiyuan Qi and William Olichney As China’s overseas financing activities expand across the globe, the need for reliable, detailed and publicly accessible data has grown as well. Researchers, policymakers, civil society and journalists increasingly rely on third-party databases to understand the scale, nature and impact of China’s global lending. A small group of independent […]
A new update to the Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) Database, managed by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, estimates that from 2000-2024, Chinese lenders signed 1,319 loan commitments amounting to $180.87 billion with 49 African governments and seven regional institutions. In 2024, Chinese loans commitments to Africa remained concentrated among a small group […]
By Samantha Igo As a record-breaking heat wave strains energy grids and risks public health across Europe, policymakers, activists and experts convene in Seville, Spain from June 30 to July 3 for the highly anticipated 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4). These rather rare policy events (the last was 10 years ago in […]
For over 15 years, China has been a vital source of development finance for low- and middle-income countries around the world, committing nearly a half-trillion dollars in public and publicly guaranteed (PPG) finance since 2008. With lending far below peak levels seen in 2015-2017, what is the current status of China’s overseas development finance? And […]
In September 2021, Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged that China would stop financing new overseas coal-fired power plants and instead pledged to ramp up support for renewable energy projects. This announcement marked an important shift in China’s global energy policy, with potential to fill the glaring gaps in the financing necessary for the energy […]
The most notable milestone of 2024 was the 80th anniversary of the Bretton Woods institutions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and World Trade Organization. This anniversary came as calls for ambitious global economic governance reforms gain momentum in key fora, and developing country frustrations with the existing system continue to grow. 2024 […]
By Thang Ha On November 14, 2024, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center hosted a webinar on the latest data and trends in China’s overseas energy finance, based on the new update to China Global Energy Finance (CGEF) Database. The webinar was moderated by Rebecca Ray, Senior Academic Researcher with the Global China Initiative […]