China has become an important player in the changing international development aid landscape. There is a need to understand and analyse the motivation and objectives behind China’s policy on international development cooperation and the differences between traditional Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC)-led development assistance and China’s development finance, which is typically composed of concessional and non-concessional loans and export credits. In the aftermath of the dissolution of the United States Agency for International Development and the overall decline in OECD DAC countries’ foreign aid budgets, serious questions have been raised on whether China will step up and step in to play a more prominent role. This policy brief aims to address some of these issues.