“It’s fine to make a deal with China that benefits Americans. If China wants to buy a stake in an oil field in Texas or a hotel somewhere, that’s fine. But it’s different for American taxpayers to give China any amount of money when they’re not poor, and they’re not a cooperative partner; they do a lot of things to harm the American economy,” said Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “When it’s a voluntary transaction, buying Chinese goods is fine, but taking money [away] from the American taxpayer — even a tiny little bit of money — [should] not [go to] the Chinese.”
Experts agreed that the amount of money being funneled to China is relatively small compared to the scale of moneys flowing to foreign aid projects on the whole, and given China’s financial stability and strained economic partnership with the U.S., that small amount of aid could easily be revoked.
“It’s a small amount. Seven million is a drop in the bucket, so why send any at all?” Mr. Wilson asked.
“We’re not talking about sanctioning them, we’re talking about not taking a little bit of taxpayer money and not giving it to them because they don’t deserve it,” Mr. Scissors said.