Today, by many accounts, China is the world's foremost purveyor of foreign aid and foreign investment to developing countries. This is the product of China's miracle economic growth over a period of more than three decades, together with China's drive to become a major player in world affairs and accomplish this through economic rather than military means. This three-volume work is the first comprehensive study of China's aid and investment strategy to trace how it has evolved since Beijing launched its foreign aid diplomacy at the time of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Volume II provides an analysis of China's foreign aid and investment to countries and regional organizations on the Asian continent, covering all of its major sub-regions, during the period from 1950 to the present day. Copper considers motivating factors such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and China's desire to challenge the West and later the Soviet Union. Also important to China and driving its aid and investment was China's pursuit of Communist Bloc solidarity, a search for secure borders, and competition with India for influence in the Third World. Securing its imports of energy and raw materials and markets for is products came later. Marginalizing Taiwan and defeating it diplomatically constituted another goal of China's foreign aid and foreign investment analyzed here.