Asians may hesitate to fill aid gap left by US

China is best placed to replace the United States as a key foreign donor in Asia but may be reluctant to fully fill the void, while South Korea and Japan may struggle to give enough, experts said.

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From critical maternal health care to funding disaster relief, life-saving projects in Asia hang in the balance after President Donald Trump paused foreign aid and moved to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID). While China is the world’s second-largest economy, its foreign assistance looks very different from that of the United States, as Beijing primarily provides loans that need to be paid back and focuses on infrastructure projects, experts said.

“China is very unlikely to step up to fill gaps in areas such as democracy promotion, media freedom, civil society and LGBT or women’s rights,” said Melissa Conley Tyler, executive director of Asia-Pacific Development & Defence Dialogue, a think tank in Australia.

“It is vital that other donors don’t let these vital areas be a casualty of the US foreign assistance cuts.” The United States disbursed a total of $56 billion globally in foreign assistance in 2024, $32.48 billion of which was managed through USAID, US government data showed, according to Reuters.