WaPo | The bank’s 30-year engagement with China began
soon after the United States restored diplomatic ties with the
communist nation in 1979. It is often trumpeted by bank officials as one
of their more important success stories. China’s rapid development has
been central to the drop in extreme poverty around the world. Bank
officials, including Kim, say that they are uniquely positioned to help
China with ongoing problems such as pollution and climate change — and
that China’s success on those fronts is important to the world.
But as China has become more powerful and sophisticated, the bank’s role there has occupied an increasingly gray area.
Is
the World Bank there because China needs help? Or because loans to
China provide a hefty profit that pays the bank’s salaries and
administrative costs? Does helping China reduce its carbon use justify
bank support for programs that may have damaged industries in other
countries? Are Chinese contractors simply more willing than most to work
in difficult parts of the world for a cheaper price?
China is the bank’s third-largest
borrower, with nearly $56 billion in loans since 1980, and 107 programs
underway. In the early years, that included support from the
International Development Association (IDA), the branch of the bank that
provides low-interest loans or grants to the poorest countries, and
whose lending is subsidized by contributions from wealthier nations,
including the United States.
That cut-rate lending stopped more
than a decade ago when China passed the income threshold set by the bank
for IDA borrowers. But some in the United States argue that China — a
nuclear power with a space program and $3 trillion in cash reserves —
should not get any help from an organization whose money and energy
could be better directed at countries with less ability to help
themselves.
