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China
Please note: All linked documents are in PDF format
Excludes P.L. 480. See Program Annex.
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The Development Challenge: USAID's activities in China are limited to assisting Tibetan communities, a HIV/AIDS regional program operating in the two southern provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan, and support for American Schools and Hospitals Abroad.
The Tibetan areas of China include all of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and the Tibet Autonomous Prefectures and Counties in the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan. The Tibetan population of about 5.4 million people is widely spread across the vast expanse of the Tibetan Plateau, mostly in remote and physically isolated locations. Home to the headwaters of Asia's major rivers, the Tibetan Plateau is one of the world's richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life. With more than 12,000 species of higher plants, the region is probably the most botanically rich temperate region in the world, and provides habitat to many rare wildlife species, including giant panda, the red panda, the golden monkey, the snow leopard, and the bovine-like takin.
The Tibetan people possess a unique and ancient cultural heritage, reaching back centuries and inseparable from their own distinct Buddhist tradition. Much of this heritage was lost during the 1960s and 1970s when many monasteries and cultural institutions were destroyed; however much remains, and Tibetans face daunting challenges in preserving and maintaining their cultural heritage in the face of economic development, modernization, and migration of non-Tibetans into the region.
Tibetan areas exhibit widespread poverty due in large part to an environment characterized by cold temperatures, fragile and infertile soils, drought, and severe snowstorms. The harsh environment of the Tibetan Plateau limits agricultural productivity, and the isolation of its inhabitants restricts their access to health care, education, financial services, markets, information, and technology to improve their lives. Heavy reliance on primary livestock and agricultural products for employment limits economic opportunities for most Tibetans and creates pressure on available land resources.
The Tibetan Plateau presents a challenging implementation environment for development assistance. Those most in need of assistance live in small nomadic communities scattered across vast rural tracts, unserved by roads or other public infrastructure. The harsh climate limits most assistance to the nine warmer months of the year, and the inaccessibility of many areas deters all but the most intrepid aid workers.
The USAID Program: Since FY 2000, funding has been provided for activities to promote sustainable development, environmental conservation and cultural preservation in Tibetan areas of China. In 2003 USAID, in close cooperation with the Department of State, assumed management of a portion of the program, and in FY 2004 and succeeding years will manage the entire program.
The principal goal of the program is to strengthen Tibetan communities' capacity for meeting their socio-economic needs, while conserving the environment and preserving their cultural heritage. The goal is being met through activities that directly assist Tibetan communities in China. This program is implemented through U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide Tibetan communities with access to financial, technical, marketing, environmental, and educational resources they need to sustain their traditional livelihoods, their unique culture and environment, and to take advantage of economic opportunities as China develops its western regions.
Other Program Elements: Outside Tibetan areas there are a small number of U.S. Government programs in China. As part of its regional HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases strategy, USAID is working on a limited scale with NGOs in the two southern provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan. Over the past eight years USAID's American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) program has supported the construction and equipment of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, Shanghai. American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) has also supported the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing and provided a grant to Project Hope to support training for the Shanghai Children's Medical Center.
Other Donors: China does not have a formal aid group. Bilateral donors include Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Multilateral donors include the World Bank, the European Union, the Asian Development Bank, and the United Nations Development Program. Donors providing support to Tibetan areas include Australia (health), Canada (humanitarian assistance and community development), Netherlands (humanitarian assistance and community development), and Sweden (education).
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