Cognitive Evolution and China’s International Development Cooperation

China’s approach to International Development Cooperation (IDC) has been one of continuous evolution. The 2000s version of Chinese IDC applied a request-/project-centrism methodology, focused on the infrastructure sector, and mixed aid with business. Since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the methodological dimension of the existing IDC model has changed by virtue of a growing emphasis on top-level design, sectoral programmes, and high standards for project implementation. How to explain these changes? Different from the conventional material-functionalist approaches, this article attributes the development of China’s IDC to cognitive evolution—an intra-community collective learning mechanism that drives changes in norms and practices. Cognitive evolution consists of the following three interconnected processes: uncertainty build-up; experimentation; and selection. Three factors that may shape the trajectories of cognitive evolution are as follows: the legacy of orthodox norms; the availability of transferable local ideas; and the communal interpretation of candidate ideas’ performance. The IDC model of the 2000s was constructed based on critical reflections on the internationalist foreign aid model of the Mao era and on the IDC policy community’s interpretation and transplantation of China’s development experience. The methodology of this IDC model—request-/project-centrism—has come under new pressure for change due to the BRI’s ambition to engender more substantial and sustainable developmental impact.