WITHIN ONE month of USAID being dismantled(被拆除；被解散) last year, the Pyi Gyi Khin organisation in Myanmar laid off(解雇；裁员) 14 of its most experienced staff, people who had spent years building trust with people living with HIV. Then came a devastating(毁灭性的) earthquake in March 2025 that destroyed the cold-chain storage(冷链储存) used for medications. Staff watched life-saving drugs spoil(变质；腐败) in the heat. “We undid(毁掉；使恢复原状) 20 years of public-health progress in a single year,” says Naw Zarli, the group’s project co-ordinator. The organisation’s budget has been slashed(大幅度削减) by 80%. It has found no replacement funding.
去年美国国际开发署被解散后的一个月内，缅甸的Pyi Gyi Khin组织就解雇了14名最有经验的员工，这些人多年来与艾滋病毒感染者建立了信任。随后2025年3月发生毁灭性地震，摧毁了用于储存药物的冷链设施。工作人员眼睁睁看着救命药物在高温中变质。该组织项目协调员Naw Zarli说：“我们在一年内就毁掉了20年的公共卫生进步。”该组织的预算被削减了80%，且没有找到替代资金。
After the gutting of USAID, some speculated that China would step into the breach(填补空缺；接替). After all, when the earthquake hit Myanmar, China sent a large rescue operation and pledged $142m in support—something America would have previously done. But the idea that Chinese development finance(发展融资) can substitute for what has been lost misunderstands(误解) both what disappeared and what China actually offers.
在美国国际开发署被掏空后，一些人猜测中国会填补这个缺口。毕竟，当缅甸发生地震时，中国派出了大规模救援行动，并承诺提供1.42亿美元的支持——这本来是美国之前会做的事情。但认为中国的发展融资可以替代失去的东西，这种想法误解了消失的东西以及中国实际提供的东西。
China’s foreign-aid budget—around $2.8bn in 2024—is a fraction of(一小部分) USAID’s pre-Trump spending of some $35bn that year. But the gap is structural(结构性的) even more than fiscal (see chart). Roughly 85% of China’s overseas financing is issued as loans rather than aid, according to AidData, a research lab that tracks Chinese development financing at William & Mary, a university in Virginia. Its official development assistance (ODA), which includes grants and concessional loans(优惠贷款), was just 1.3% of its global portfolio(投资组合；业务组合) in 2023. Its annual aid budget is roughly the size of Italy’s. For every dollar China donates, it lends 35. Before and after the USAID cuts, China’s strategy stayed the same: narrowly defined(狭隘地定义) to pursue its economic and strategic interests.
2024年中国的对外援助预算约为28亿美元，只是美国国际开发署当年约350亿美元支出的零头。但差距更是结构性的，而不仅仅是财政上的（见图表）。根据追踪中国发展融资的研究实验室AidData（位于弗吉尼亚州的威廉与玛丽学院）的数据，中国约85%的海外融资是以贷款而非援助形式发放的。2023年，其官方发展援助（包括赠款和优惠贷款）仅占其全球投资组合的1.3%。中国的年度援助预算大致相当于意大利的规模。中国每捐赠1美元，就借出35美元。在美国国际开发署削减前后，中国的战略始终如一：狭隘地定义为追求自身经济和战略利益。