An interactive perspective of Chinese aid policy: A case study of Chinese aid to Tanzania

In this study the interactive learning model is developed and applied in the analysis of Chinese aid policy. Being a process that involves interaction between contextual and cognitional factors in policy making, learning is defined as the shift and reassessment of decision makers' belief and perceptions of domestic and international environment. It is learning that gives leaders lenses to interpret international and domestic situations and to perceive the challenges and opportunities in pursuing their policy goals. Based on the other field research conducted in China and Tanzania, this author explains that the changing reality of the international and domestic environments in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, and the leaders' learning experiences, are interrelated and interacted in driving the changes of Chinese aid policy.; This dissertation seeks to analyze Chinese aid policy changes from an interactive perspective by applying learning theory with a specific case study of Chinese aid to Tanzania. The shift of Chinese aid policy in the early 1980s came as the result of an interactive learning process in which Chinese leaders' beliefs of pragmatism interacted with the changing domestic and international environmental situations through the policy process with feedback from officials and experts in aid agencies. Experts and officials in aid agencies has become active actors after leaders began to take their information and feedback from the field more seriously and delegate certain responsibility to them. A case of Chinese aid policy to Tanzania is used to further explain the application of the interactive learning model. This study also shows the need and the significance of exploring the integrative approach in policy study.