Abstract

This article analyzes how the People’s Republic of China
engages in international disaster management (IDM). The
paper sets out to answer especially the question of how
these activities benefit its own disaster management
capabilities. In order to answer the question, the study
analyzed public archival materials of news reports
concerning China’s bilateral and multilateral IDM activities
between May 2013 and May 2018, retrieved from the China
National Commission for Disaster Reduction’s online
database. This data was analyzed quantitatively and
qualitatively. The article argues that Chinese IDM
engagements are active and have a global reach, but are at
the same time selective in their nature. The PRC uses IDM
to position itself as a “leading developing country” through
its active IDM engagements with other developing countries,
while at the same time also seeking to benefit from
developed countries’ disaster management know-how and
accepting humanitarian aid only in case of large natural
disasters.