Last year the British taxpayer funded almost 100 “aid” projects in China, a world superpower with a space programme, a massive army, and the second biggest economy in the world.
Britsh cash is paying for doctors and schools in the nation at a time when public services including education and the National Health Service in the UK are facing shortages.
The spending is part of a billion-pound ‘Prosperity Fund’ run by the governments’ Foreign Office, The Sun reports, with some projects in China already planned to run into 2021.
The projects in 2017 include training GPs in paediatrics to help “China’s economic development” and strengthening primary care capacity.
Another put money towards efforts to “enhance the growth of China’s financial markets” and £100,000 was spent on developing China’s legal system.
British money was also spent on drawing up a schoolwork guide to improve Chinese students’ academic performance.
And in 2016, the UK taxpayer reportedly gave around £47 million in “aid” handouts to the Asian superpower.
Former Minister Rob Halfon blasted: “Hard-working taxpayers struggling with higher bills will find it hard to believe their taxes are being spent in this way.
“Overseas aid seems to be the only place where taxpayers’ money literally does grow on the magic money tree.”
The Foreign Office commented on Monday night: “We only collaborate in those areas where… alongside benefit to and appetite from China, there is also a clear UK interest.”
At the end of last year, it was reported that part of the UK’s foreign aid budget has been funnelled to jihadists in Syria linked to al-Nusra, formerly a branch of al-Qaeda.
And amid the recent Oxfam sex scandal, partly funded by UK aid, the Department for International Development refused to consider slashing the budget and rejected an online petition signed by over 50,000 calling on them to scrap the 0.7 percent target.