China’s aid and lending to developing countries have faced intense but often empirically questionable scrutiny, especially following the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013. Infrastructure is a particularly major component of China’s presence in global development and is also central to larger debates about China’s evolving roles in the world economy and international system. This talk shows how innovative, data-driven research can help demystify the nature, motivations, and consequences of Chinese development finance. It will provide a comprehensive snapshot of Chinese government-financed infrastructure and other projects across the Global South since 1949 to present using newly created historical and contemporary datasets. In advancing knowledge on China’s international development cooperation, such data can also facilitate data-driven policymaking by major development organizations and donor and lender governments, and empower local communities to engage productively with China’s development financing across the Global South.