China's aid to needy African countries is justified because it reflects its commitment to the rest of the world as a responsible country

China's increased economic aid to African countries in recent years has been appreciated by the international community. But some people even in China are not convinced of its efficacy.

Critics say that China still has a large number of school-age children who cannot attend schools because of poverty and that the victims of famine in Africa is the responsibility of countries other than China. Their logic is that China is not a wealthy country and thus has no reason to offer economic help to other countries. Instead, it should use the funds for the betterment of its own citizens.

Such views sound reasonable to some extent if seen from a superficial level, given that they touch upon the question of how we should look at our country's commitment to improving the welfare of our own people and whether we should draw a demarcation line between solving our own problems and offering economic help to other countries.

The answer to this question will reflect the attitude China will hold toward people in other countries facing difficulties at a time when Chinese people have experienced considerable improvements in their livelihoods.

Whether or not a person will lend a helping hand to others in need has no inevitable connection with his or her economic condition. But contrary to this, there seems to be a broad agreement that charity is a business of wealthy people alone.

Recently, when an old refuse collector in Guangdong province helped carry a little girl, who lay injured on a road after being hit by two vehicles, to hospital, it did not mean that she was financially better off than the cold-hearted passers-by who ignored the fatally injured toddler. "It is in my instinct to do such a thing", she said when asked by the media whether she was worried that she could face unnecessary economic trouble for helping the little hit-and-run victim.

Being a good country is similar to being a good person. Whenever a country on good terms with China encounters difficulties, China should come to its aid irrespective of whether it is a developed or developing nation. If it is right to support "love" and refuse "indifference" in China, then we should not turn a blind eye to humanitarian disasters in African countries or other parts of the world. This is not to say that all African countries, either in the past or at present, have been or are our friends and given us valuable support and help.

In this sense, China's offering of economic aid to them is not a pompous show of its wealth. Instead, it is a concrete reflection of the country's virtues and its international responsibility. Chinese people are far from being wealthy, but it is our long-cherished tradition to spread love and compassion among others, especially among those in desperate need.

We should feel proud of our economic aid to African countries because every penny represents a solemn commitment of unselfish support the 1.3 billion-strong Chinese people have made to the developing continent.

Alongside the aid offered by the Chinese government to some African countries not long ago when they experienced an unprecedented famine, many Chinese individuals donated (some handsomely) to their suffering African friends voluntarily.

A country will have no friends or allies if it holds a parochial view. When China decided to help African people build the Tanzania-Zambia Railway in the 1970s, it did not have a GDP like today. But it still tried to overcome its many difficulties and managed to frame for the African people their first railway that cut across mountains, a project that helped them further consolidate their hard-won independence. Such moves have helped China build a good image in the minds of African people.

Given that globalization has brought together the fates of all countries, we should further ponder how to transform China's rapid development into more opportunities for the rest of the world. The majority of Chinese people agree that lending a helping hand to Africa today is tantamount to helping ourselves tomorrow.

There is no doubt that China should first resolve its domestic matters and that our economic aid to Africa should be measured according to our national strength. We should try to strike a balance between improving the livelihoods of our own people and offering aid to foreign countries. We should also try to improve the efficiency and efficacy of our foreign aid and make it transparent to the Chinese public.

As an old nation (and a big developing country) that has always advocated that one should "sacrifice his or her life for a just cause", the virtues China will demonstrate to the world, including Africa, are expected to add further gloss to its concrete and practical actions.

The author is a Beijing-based researcher on African studies.

(China Daily 11/05/2011 page5)