Senate Report Says Trump Aid Cuts Let China Expand Global Footprint

Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee warn that Beijing is accelerating its diplomatic, economic and humanitarian outreach as Washington retreats from the international stage. In a 91-page report released 14 July, the senators fault President Donald Trump’s first six months in office for what they call a dramatic erosion of U.S. soft power, arguing that Beijing is exploiting the vacuum to broaden its influence across Africa, Asia and Latin America. The report details deep personnel and budget cuts ordered by the White House: more than 1,350 U.S.-based State Department employees are being dismissed as part of a reduction approaching 3,000 positions, while billions of dollars in foreign-aid funding have been eliminated. Those reductions have shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, slashed international broadcasting budgets and curtailed public-health and infrastructure projects once led by Washington. China has moved quickly to fill the gaps, the report says. After U.S. food-aid programmes ended in Africa, Beijing donated US$2 million in rice to Uganda. When Washington cancelled a US$37 million HIV/AIDS grant to Zambia, China stepped in with 500,000 rapid HIV test kits and promised additional support. President Xi Jinping’s recent tour of Southeast Asia produced a rail deal with Vietnam and 37 cooperation pacts with Cambodia, while in May Beijing offered a US$9 billion credit line and new infrastructure funding to Latin American and Caribbean nations. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the committee’s top Democrat, said the administration’s “America First” approach has branded the United States an unreliable partner just as China raises its diplomatic budget by 8.4 percent. The lawmakers urge Congress and the White House to restore funding for diplomacy, development and international broadcasting, warning that continued retrenchment risks ceding long-term strategic advantage to Beijing.