The purpose of this project is to explore the relationship between international assistance and the domestic politics of the recipient countries or areas.

International assistance is one of the important aspects of the international relations. In the history of Asia, many countries and areas accepted short-term or long-term international assistance due to war, unrest, poverty and other reasons. Large amounts of international assistance had significant effects on the political system, government function, power structure, interest relationship, and even the basic social values, social development path, etc. of the recipient countries or areas. In some cases, the effects were so powerful that changed the political structure or political tradition of the recipients. Sometimes, the international assistance that reflected national interests of the donors might conflict with the political interests of the recipients. On the other hand, the domestic politics of the recipients would also affect the nature, quantity and ways of the international assistance. Sometimes, the effects were so powerful that they terminated the assistance, or even turned the assistance object from one's own side to the opposite. To explore this kind of mutual influence will contribute to deepening understanding of the natures, operation mechanisms and practical results of international political, economic and military aid. It will also help the recipient countries or areas to gain more and necessary assistance especially that be helpful to their own development and maximize the actual effects.

The reasons for this project to compare the Palestine after 1948 with China during the Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945) are that they have both similarities and differences during the periods studied. There are several similarities between them. First, they both defended the national survival and fought for national rights under very hard environments. Second, they needed and accepted international assistance. Third, there existed different political factions in both of them. Fourth, the interaction between the international assistance and the domestic politics was significant, and so on. The differences are: China is a big country while Palestine is a small area without established state; China experienced a large scale war within a period of eight years while Palestine has coexisted with many conflicts of different scales during a long time; The international assistance they accepted by various ways were different in nature and quantity; The ways and degrees that the domestic politics affected international assistance were different, and so on. A comparative study of the two cases will contribute to achieve the goal of this project.