Booming Beijing hands out £55bn

CHINA now spends billions of pounds each year on its own foreign aid programme, dishing out cash to poorer countries around the world.

Beijing handed out £55billion from 000 to 014, with the main beneficiaries being Cuba (£4.8billion), Ivory Coast (£ .9billion), Ethiopia (£ .7billion), Zimbabwe (£ .6billion), Cameroon (£ .4billion) and Nigeria (£ . billion). China has also poured billions into its space programme and wants to put astronauts on the Moon by 036. In 003, it became the third country to put a man in space with its own rocket after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

The value of China’s spending on its space programmes is shrouded in secrecy, but experts believe it is more than £ billion annually.