China's official development finance flows in Zambia under the Beijing consensus

Abstract

Chinese development finance flows provided to African recipients have gained a lot of attention for their volume and nature, representing an alternative approach to development. It is the aim of this article to examine the observance of the principles of China's development model, the Beijing Consensus, through China's Official Development Finance delivered to Zambia between 2000 and 2014. Due to a lack of information published on development finance flows by the Chinese government, the author uses AidData's dataset, media, and government reports to verify the nature and amount of finance flows provided and their allocation in the country. The analysis demonstrates that apart from the "non-interference principle", all the principles are observed when their adherence is limited to the purpose of the delivered projects. However, their observance is at the same time undercut by characteristics of the process of projects' implementation and their allocation. There are also other Chinese activities further undermining the adherence. Although these activities are not directly associated with China's ODF-like finance delivery to Zambia, they influence the successful observance of the examined principles in a negative way.