AidData, a research lab at William & Mary’s Global Research Institute, has come up with an extensive new study on Chinese public diplomacy efforts in South Asia and Central Asia, ranging from financing and education to culture and social media that seek to win over foreign leaders and the public in what Beijing considers its “greater periphery.”‍

The Corridors of Power report, accompanied by an interactive dashboard, analyzes Beijing's efforts to cultivate and deepen economic, social, and network ties with 13 countries in South and Central Asia (SCA) over two decades, according to AidData.

These ties foster interdependence with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that have the potential to both empower and constrain SCA countries, while threatening to displace or diminish the influence of regional rivals such as Russia, India, and the United States, the new report says.

The report examines how the PRC has deployed $127 billion in financial diplomacy to sway popular opinion and leader behavior over an 18 year period. This state-directed financing includes both aid (i.e., grants and concessional loans) and debt (i.e., non-concessional loans approaching market rates) in four categories of assistance visible to foreign publics (infrastructure financing, humanitarian aid) and prized by foreign leaders (budget support, debt relief).

The new research finds that Beijing does not distribute attention equally—beyond national boundaries, the PRC clearly views some communities as more strategically important to advancing its interests than others. According to the authors, Beijing is employing three distinct subnational public diplomacy strategies, varying its engagement to best advance specific economic, security, and geopolitical goals.

China’s financial diplomacy is indeed highly concentrated: the report finds that Beijing focuses the lion’s share of its largesse to just 25 provinces (receiving 62 percent of financing) and 25 districts (receiving 41 percent of financing) in the region, the report reads.

While China is best known for the power of its purse, the authors argue that Beijing’s economic and soft power tools may be most formidable in exerting influence with countries when they are employed hand-in-hand. The report acknowledges that the more that SCA publics and elites build closer people-to-people ties with counterparts in China, the more they may turn to these social networks when it comes to sourcing goods, services, capital, and other economic partnerships. Read the full report here.