China now views the developing world as a market for infrastructure services via development aid. It appears to have adopted a two-pronged approach: direct intervention through investments in hard infrastructure and indirect intervention through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Sitting behind these efforts is geopolitical complexity, now manifest in an infrastructure “proxy war” between China and Japan.
“China’s disruptive entrance on the global aid stage: infrastructure and geopolitical positioning in ASEAN.” Policy Forum, 24 Nov 2016.
http://devpolicy.org/chinas-disruptive-entrance-on-the-global-aid-stage-20161124/