When President Donald Trump froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid, Cambodia was forced to suspend workers removing dangerous mines from the country -- until China stepped in with the necessary funding.
In the Cook Islands, traditionally bound to New Zealand and friendly with the United States, the prime minister has announced plans to head to Beijing to sign a cooperation deal.
Successive U.S. administrations have vowed to wage a global competition with China, described as the only potential rival for global leadership.
But as seen in Cambodia and the Cook Islands, two small but strategic countries, the United States has effectively ceded one of its main levers of influence.
The dramatic shift by Trump -- following the advice of billionaire advisor Elon Musk -- has put nearly the entire workforce on leave at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), marking the end of a key decades-old effort by the United States to exercise "soft power" -- the ability of a country to persuade others through its attractiveness.
Trump has unapologetically turned instead to hard power, wielding tariffs against friends and foes and threatening military force to get his way, even against NATO ally Denmark over Greenland.
When John F Kennedy created USAID, he pointed to the success of the Marshall Plan in rebuilding Europe and hoped that alleviating poverty would reduce the allure of the Soviet Union, the main adversary of the United States at the time.
Michael Schiffer, who served as USAID's assistant administrator for Asia under former president Joe Biden, warned that China could become the dominant player in the developing world in areas from public health to policing.
"We'll be sitting on the sidelines and then in a couple of years we'll have a conversation about how we're shocked that the PRC has positioned itself as the partner of choice in Latin America, Africa and Asia," he said, referring to the People's Republic of China. "At that point, the game will be over."
The United States has long been the top donor in the world, giving $64 billion in 2023.
A number of other Western countries, especially in Scandinavia, have been more generous compared with the sizes of their economies.
But Schiffer doubted they could replace the United States either in dollar terms or in the longstanding U.S. role of mobilizing international aid to priorities around the world.
China's aid is more opaque. According to AidData, a research group at the College of William and Mary, China has provided $1.34 trillion over two decades -- but unlike Western nations, it has mostly provided loans rather than grants.
Samantha Custer, director of policy analysis at AidData, doubted there would be any "huge, dramatic increase in aid dollars from China," noting Beijing's focus on lending and the economic headwinds facing the Asian power.
Still, she said, the United States will struggle to counter perceptions it is no longer reliable.
"China can win the day by not even doing anything," she said. "You can't partner with somebody who's not there."
Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said China is more interested in construction and benefiting its domestic industries, like building a hospital rather than training its doctors.
And with the freeze in USAID, China may have even less reason to step up aid.
"If they become the only game in town, it doesn't generate strong incentives for China to compete and significantly increase development assistance," he said.
One major gap will be conflict-related funding, said Rebecca Wolfe, an expert in development and political violence at the University of Chicago.
She pointed to Syria, where the Islamic State extremist group gained grounds in areas that lacked governance.
"Yes, the Chinese can come in and do the infrastructure. But what about the governance part?"
She said Western countries may not step up until they feel real effects, such as a new migrant crisis.
Trump's aid freeze is officially only a 90-day review, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that he issued waivers for emergency assistance.
But aid groups say effects are already being felt by the sweeping pause, from schools shutting down in Uganda to flood relief shelters under threat in South Sudan.
Hendrik W. Ohnesorge, a scholar of soft power, said Trump has a highly transactional worldview and is more attuned to hard power.
But Ohnesorge, managing director of the Center for Global Studies at the University of Bonn, said Trump also represented a new, post-liberal sort of soft power in a polarized world.
He noted that other leaders have styled themselves after Trump and gladly followed his lead.
For instance, Argentina's libertarian president, Javier Milei, swiftly joined Trump in leaving the World Health Organization.
"Perhaps it may henceforth be better to even speak of U.S. soft powers -- in the plural -- as there are starkly different visions of America and the world prevalent in the U.S. today," Ohnesorge said.
© 2025 AFP
35 Comments
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zulander
Court China's soft power and money at your own peril.
The two arent exactly comparative replacements.
Megan Thee Stallion
Good. Fix home and spend money on Americans first.
I'veSeenFootage
MAGA actively working for China, one of America's biggest enemies. Trump probably hoping to get better deals on all his badly made merchandise.
Speed
It'd be nice to have very intelligent leaders again.
RichardPearce
America's 'soft power' always was more convincing itself that wasn't a brutal mafia boss than actual aid.
China's 'soft power' is treating other governments as equal.
deanzaZZR
China, China, China! For a country with a supposedly collapsing economy and reportedly out of touch authoritarian leadership it is amazing how China looms so large in the minds of the Washington DC political class and Western mainstream media.
Harry_Gatto
Yes, start with education.
bass4funk
What proof?
Chinese merchandise is far worse
JJE
Article reads more as an opinion piece. Leaves out relevant context:
Opening premise of Cambodia fails to mention the major infrastructure projects - roads, rail, canals and ports etc - under construction and how this has been in the pipeline for decades, and any token project is unlikely to change the status quo.
Next up is the Cook Islands pop. 18,000. China has been the second largest foreign aid donor for a long time, donating over $10 million annually. The US, meanwhile, has contributed only $95,000 to the Cook Islands over 14 years. And the "cooperation" deal is not security related but trade cooperation, climate, tourism, and infrastructure.
Completely lacking context, moreover, a place like the latter (and former really) are looking to play off 'both sides' if anything. Hard to blame them...
JamesTCL
There is a bigger problem looming if China becomes the main aid donor instead of the USA. I've seen first-hand how Chinese aid benefits politicians personally in some developing countries. China will set a standard that most developed countries are not use to. It'll be a case of "I don't care about my own people, what's in it for me" situation. The Chinese government is always more than happy to line the pockets of those politicians. The developed countries won't play a part in this game, so they'll be shunned by the developing countries accordingly. Once Trump is out of office, the next President won't find it easy to offer aid as they did before.
bass4funk
Exactly
Tokyo Guy
Good. Fix home and spend money on Americans first.
As a result of cuts to the NIH, St Jude Children's Research hospital is set to lose out on 40 million dollars.
Why don't you just say what you mean: "spend money on billionaires first, and everyone else can fend for themselves and die".
nishikat
BYD is better than Tesla. DeepSeek is more competitive than OAI
Jimizo
There is a section of the electorate who’ve been told to dislike certain ‘elites’ ( there are other elites they have been told to like - certain billionaires, certain members of political dynasties etc. ).
Obama was disliked by some for being part of the educated elite and ‘talking down’ to people.
Some prefer a thundering ignoramus who doesn’t ‘talk down’ to them ( Spain a member of BRICS, conspiracy theories etc ). Maybe makes them feel better about themselves.
Anyway, very intelligent leaders aren’t trusted by a section of the electorate these days.
China is an interesting one on this score. The best and brightest in China used to join the CCP - other options were limited. These days, they tend to see better opportunities elsewhere. Maybe they’ll see less intelligent people at the top in the future.
Blacklabel
Let China pay the 100s of billions of dollars that this supposed “soft power” costs.
we don’t need to PAY anyone to be our friend. They just taking money from China too, most of them.
lincolnman
Exactly...it's all part of the payoff Xi made to Musk when he visited just after the inauguration...
Putin is no doubt involved too...
All part of the rise of China and Russia and the diminishing of the US...
Trump and his fellow felons get richer, our country gets weaker...
MAGA 2.0 - the vanishing of America...
mikeylikesit
Does it really cede to China?
As Larry Summers (Clinton’s Treasury Secretary) related two years ago, a leader in a developing country told him, “What we get from China is an airport. What we get from the U.S. is a lecture.”
American hegemony has crumbled in the past 20 years because USAID and other foreign aid spending has been so misplaced. Most of the money is being sucked up in graft. What little gets through is promoting the most obscene excesses of American culture, not actually fostering goodwill toward the U.S.
Except for with a handful of people who had their faces sink deep in the graft trough, I highly doubt that curtailing USAID will harm the U.S. any more than USAID itself has harmed the U.S. in recent decades.
Tokyo Guy
Obama was disliked by some for being part of the educated elite and ‘talking down’ to people.
I remember reading an interview with Matt Groening, the creator of (inter alia) The Simpsons. He was a massive Frank Zappa fan, and in the interview he said something which has resonated with me ever since I read it. This is from memory and not necessarily word-for-word, but the point is there.
"Americans are really suspicious of anything cerebral, and Zappa doesn't hide his intelligence well enough".
mikeylikesit
Every politician needs a bogeyman. China serves the role for many among the D.C. class.
Megan Thee Stallion
Stings, but you are right brotha.
Tokyo GuyToday 01:17 pm JST
Why don't you just say what you mean: "spend money on billionaires first, and everyone else can fend for themselves and die".
Dont waste our money on corrupt USAID grift and spend them $ on Americans in need first. You dont get that ? Why are libheads always tryin to put words in peoples mouths? Lame.
Blacklabel
”without evidence”
Blacklabel
“So what you are saying is….”
”why don’t you just say that….”
the common liberal redirections away from what was clearly said.
Underworld
bass4funk
MAGA actively working for China, one of America's biggest enemies.
Putting nearly the entire workforce on leave at the USAID. Means US cedes "soft power" to CHina.
Underworld
Blacklabel
How naive.
Raw Beer
They call it "aid", but it's basically a collection of CIA fronts.
Tokyo Guy
Dont waste our money on corrupt USAID grift and spend them $ on Americans in need first. You dont get that ? Why are libheads always tryin to put words in peoples mouths? Lame.
I quote my earlier post:
As a result of cuts to the NIH, St Jude Children's Research hospital is set to lose out on 40 million dollars.
Guess kids with serious illnesses don't count as "Americans in need" to you. Hence my comment. You just want the rich to get richer so you can...I dunno, fawn over them more for having lots of money?
iknowall
Trump has unapologetically turned instead to hard power, wielding tariffs against friends and foes and threatening military force to get his way, even against NATO ally Denmark over Greenland.
The US was under soft leadership for the last four years. China isn't taking anything new.
And now we have a strong leader--who brought back a prisoner from Russia tonight; a prisoner who languished in his cell during the Biden administration.
So China stepped in and paid some miners in Cambodia.
Trump freed and brought home an American citizen.
TokyoLiving
All the gaps that the US has been leaving for decades will be taken by China to continue increasing its global influence..
Now with this new and toxic administration, it will be easier for China to reach the top spot in technology, military power, economy and development in the world. It's just a matter of a few more years..
New world order is coming soon..
Get used to it..
stormcrow
A needless and foolish defeat. Good for China, bad for the USA.
Is Elon Musk working for us or for them?
Megan Thee Stallion
Is Elon Musk working for us or for them?
Us.
bass4funk
Us
Underworld
stormcrow
Elon Musk is working for China.
I'veSeenFootage
"Gutting aid, U.S. cedes soft power game to China"
It's right there in the title.
Trump merchandise is made in China.
Jimizo
Hard to say. Musk is a businessman. Like Trump, he is interested in his bottom line. Loyalties don’t mean a lot.
I haven’t read half of the books ever written on businesspeople by the way. Just a sense you get with them.
bass4funk
I disagree, I think of this is that overall much better decision, is there any politician ever could or would
Yes, a sense, a hunch or a surmise
wallace
Trump and Musk are businessmen. Trump collects bankruptcies. Musk collects government subsidies.