Intl. Financial Architecture
The international financial architecture is in need of fundamental reform. The system needs to be larger, work better and provide more voice representation to emerging market and developing countries. The necessary reforms will not be possible without the active and welcome participation of the People’s Republic of China.
As the most dynamic growth miracle of the century, the most interconnected trading nation on earth and the largest emitter of carbon emissions with the world’s largest population, China has a major role to play in the reform and maintenance of the system.
The Global China Initiative’s work in this area advances policy-oriented research on China’s role in the international financial architecture, with particular emphasis on the Global Financial Safety Net and global development finance. We advance this work through collaborative and parallel research with institutes in China and other emerging market and developing countries.
Research Highlights
Latest News & Publications
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Brokers on the Ground: Chinese Commercial Creditors’ Entry into Africa Sovereign Development Finance
May 29, 2026By Tianyi Wu The portfolio of financiers participating in China's overseas development finance is changing. Between 2000 and 2019, development finance institutions (DFIs), primarily the Export-Import... [ More ]
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The Growth Connections Between China and the Global South: A Review and a Refocus
May 26, 2026As late as 1984, half of China’s exports consisted of raw materials, including oil, coal, food and livestock. After 47 years of reform and opening, [ More ]
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How Can China’s Debt Sustainability Analysis Better Serve Global South’s Development Goals?
May 14, 2026By Tianyi Wu The current debt and development crisis in the Global South has resurfaced a long-standing tension in sovereign development finance: do tools designed to... [ More ]
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Debt Sustainability with Chinese Characteristics: Norm Convergence and Its Limits in Sovereign Lending
May 14, 2026In 2019, China introduced the Belt and Road Initiative Debt Sustainability Framework (BRI–DSF) for low-income countries (LICs), offering a critical window into sovereign lending risk... [ More ]
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Commodity-Price-Linked Bonds: Enhancing Debt Resilience in Commodity-Dependent Economies
April 30, 2026By early 2025, debt servicing pressures had intensified. Interest payments exceed 10 percent of government revenues in 56 developing countries—double the level a decade earlier—and... [ More ]
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Disentangling Decision-Making: Chinese Infrastructure Finance in Africa
April 29, 2026By Tianyi Wu In 2016, China committed $28.8 billion in infrastructure loans to African countries––a record peak that has been followed by a rapid drop as... [ More ]
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Patient Capital, Long-Term Orientation and Global Imbalances: A Rebuttal
March 27, 2026By Yan Wang The global economy in early 2026 is confronted with an escalating war in the Middle East causing humanitarian disasters and energy crises. On... [ More ]
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Beyond Debt Reprofiling: China’s Role in Global South Development
March 05, 2026By Marina Zucker-Marques, Rosa He and Tianyi Wu Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many developing countries have faced a financial deadlock: they must scale... [ More ]
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Why Development Finance Falls Short—and How It Can Better Serve the Global South
December 17, 2025By Zheng Zhai and Kevin P. Gallagher Countries across the Global South need a stepwise increase in investment to improve the well-being of their population and... [ More ]