Let's stop giving China foreign aid

Yes, it gets it — a few billion a year, in fact. Some European countries, and Japan, are further down the road than the U.S. is in cutting off the gravy train to Beijing.

Here's why. It's not just that China's doing well enough not to need it, in many cases, the money it gets is less to go to Africa.

"I think the milestone that China is now the second largest economy, arguably, I would say that it's no longer a developing country with the likes of sub-Saharan Africa," Dr. Jack C. Chow said in an interview. "Having money from the Global Fund going to China really detracts and depletes that mission of helping people in the poorest of countries." ...

Chowwas the lead U.S. negotiator in talks that set up the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a major funder of health programs.

Beyond that, this is like foreign aid to Israel, which allows it to spend more money on settlements. The money is fungible.

Let's contrast Chow to the claims of "panda hugger" and former ambassador to China Robert Zoellick:

The World Bank defends its assistance to China, saying it enables the bank to work with Beijing on climate change and projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

"Sometimes there's a simplistic view that there should just be the developed countries and the very poorest countries," the bank's president, Robert Zoellick, said recently in Beijing. "But that would run exactly against ... the changes in the world economy, where the role of the emerging economies are to support demand, to take on responsibilities as stakeholders with the environment, to help support other poor countries."

It's another argument for "engagement," and it doesn't fly.