Luo Zhaohui speaks on China’s international development cooperation and contributions to world human rights development

Luo Zhaohui, chairman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), gave an interview to the China Media Group for a large television show on China's human rights in the new era, which was aired on CCTV 1 and CCTV 4 in the last week of 2022. Following is a summary of his interview.

It has become a common understanding among developing countries that the rights to survival and development are the most fundamental human rights. 

As a developing country, China has succeeded in eradicating absolute poverty, built a moderately prosperous society in all respects and maintained its status as the second biggest economy in the world. China's development poses three layers of significance from the perspective of international development cooperation, namely, China's development is a huge contribution to human society and human rights development, China's development means the international assistance to the country could be reduced and relocated to other needful countries, and China's development means it is more capable of helping other developing countries. 

China's contribution in safeguarding the right to survival

Leading international cooperation against COVID-19. Facing a pandemic unseen in a century, China has carried out the biggest and longest emergency humanitarian assistance since the founding of the People's Republic of China. China has supplied massive amounts of anti-pandemic materials to 151 countries and 13 international organizations, and dispatched medical expert teams to 34 countries. It has also provided over 2.2 billion doses of vaccines to over 110 countries and four international organizations. 

Long-term food assistance. China has recently provided targeted emergency food aid to more than 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Uganda. China has helped other developing countries secure enough food by various means such as establishing agricultural demonstration centers, promoting hybrid rice technology and carrying out training for agricultural talents. It has also provided the most financial assistance from any developing country, sent the most experts and carried out the most projects under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations framework for South-South cooperation. 

Contributing to world poverty reduction. China has carried out over 6,000 "small yet smart" people's livelihoods projects covering culture and education, healthcare, water supply, hunger eradication and capacity building. China's Juncao technology debuted in Papua New Guinea 21 years ago as an official assistance project. Now the technology has spread to over 100 countries and created hundreds of thousands of green job opportunities for local people. 

Emergency humanitarian relief. China has always given a helping hand to those developing countries suffering from disasters and benefited millions of disaster victims. Recent examples include the earthquake in Afghanistan, the locust plague in Pakistan, the volcanic eruptions in Tonga, and the Ukrainian war. In the past decade, China has carried out nearly 400 emergency humanitarian relief missions. 

Public health foreign assistance. Over the years, China has sent over 1,100 medical teams to 72 countries and regions in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Artemisinin discovered by Chinese professor Tu Youyou 50 years ago has played a vital role in beating malaria and benefited the whole world. 

China's contribution in safeguarding the right to development

Enhance development. China has invested major amounts in global common development, especially improving the people's livelihoods in developing countries via various means such as whole-set projects and technical assistance, emergency humanitarian relief and human resource training. Recipient countries of China's assistance have increased in recent years from over 110 to over 160. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, China's traditional assistance projects numbered 691. Sixty-seven projects were funded by the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund, and human resources development projects numbered 6,113 and cultivated around 150,000 personnel for other developing countries. In the 72 years of China's foreign aid, China has carried out thousands of projects of complete sets and materials, as well as tens of thousands of technical cooperation projects and human resources development cooperation projects, and trained more than 400,000 personnel of various types for developing countries. 

Co-building of the Belt and Road. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by China covers land and sea, stretches from east to west, connects ancient and modern times, and benefits the whole world. To date, over 140 countries and 30 international organizations have signed BRI cooperation documents with China. The BRI has yielded fruitful results, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the China-Laos Railway, the first expressway in East Africa, the first cross-sea bridge in the Maldives, and 82 economic cooperation zones all over the globe. 

The Global Development Initiative (GDI). The initiative is a reaffirmation of the people-centered core concept of human rights which is in line with the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For a full implementation of the initiative, China announced a series of major measures in June 2022 which included establishing the Global Development Promotion Center, holding the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development, upgrading China's South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund into the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund with an extra 1 billion dollars of funding, and providing an extra 100,000 training opportunities. So far, over 100 countries and international organizations including UN agencies have supported the initiative, and over 60 countries have joined the GDI Group of Friends. 

South-South cooperation. China announced the establishment of the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund and the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development in 2015. The fund has worked with over 10 international organizations in areas such as public health, climate change and environmental protection, and carried out over 130 projects in over 50 countries, benefiting more than 20 million people. The institute has enrolled over 300 officials for master's and doctoral degrees from 67 countries, many of whom have been promoted to ministerial-level officials after graduation. 

Debt relief. China has never used debt to exploit national assets or the right to development of other countries. No countries have fallen into debt crisis because of joining the BRI. China has actively responded to the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative, making the largest contribution to, or nearly 30 percent, the total debt service suspension. 

Theoretical innovation in international development cooperation

China's contribution to human rights development via foreign aid is reflected not only in practice, but also in theoretical innovation.

In terms of cooperation concepts, China upholds the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. China respects sovereignty and human rights and does not interfere in other countries' internal affairs or attach political strings.

In terms of cooperation channels, China is shifting from government aid as the main channel and focusing on bilateral cooperation, gradually diversifying donors and combining bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

In terms of cooperation methods, China combines "hard" assistance with "soft" assistance, and foreign aid with mutually beneficial cooperation, with an aim to align with recipient countries' development strategies and achieve economic complementarity and common development.

In terms of cooperation types, China focuses on "small yet smart" people's livelihoods projects on top of traditional projects, technical and supplies assistance, human resources development cooperation and emergency humanitarian relief. In 2018, China established the China International Development Cooperation Agency to better coordinate and lead China's international development cooperation.