China’s foreign assistance has evolved since the 1950s. The last seven decades has seen a number of reforms on the governance system, management structure and approach, as well as programmatic priorities and modalities.

This brief focuses on the governance structure before and after the recent reform of China's foreign assistance, and elaborates on the knowns and unknowns of the current China-aid architecture since the 2018 establishment of China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA).