Foreign Aid Governance in China and India: A Comparative Analysis

This article uses a structured, focused explanatory paired comparison to examine how China and India translate shared South–South principles into distinct foreign aid governance arrangements. It argues that these principles provide a common legitimacy framework, while differences in strategic priorities and state architecture help explain variation in authority location, fiscal control, and implementation coalitions. Using a policy‐institution‐implementation framework, the analysis shows that China's aid system is more globally ambitious, infrastructure‐centered, and reliant on state and corporate actors, whereas India's is more diplomatically embedded, regionally oriented, and focused on capacity building and state‐to‐state cooperation. By shifting attention from aid volumes and rhetoric to administrative design and delivery, the article highlights institutional variation among major non‐DAC providers.