Returning a favor of a drop of water with a spring

Editor's Note: Why is China helping other countries with investments and loans and other forms of financial assistance? The obvious answer is to help them develop their economies and improve their people's livelihoods. But there is another, more important reason behind that, as a senior journalist with China Daily explains in the first of a series of commentaries.

Being the world's second-largest economy, China's presence in other countries is, understandably, increasing in the form of investment, aid and loan. Official data released early this year show that despite the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy, China's direct overseas investment increased 3.3 percent year-on-year to $132.9 billion last year.

And a State Council Information Office white paper published in January showed that from 2013 to 2018, China gave 270.2 bullion yuan ($41.98 billion) of foreign assistance－in grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans－with grants to developing countries to improve social welfare comprising 47.3 percent of the total.