Canada freezes activity at ‘China’s World Bank’ after intrusion claims

Canada has halted all activity at the multilateral lender known as the “World Bank of China” after a top official resigned, alleging that the institution is run by Communist Party members who provide “internal secrets”. act like the police”.

Bob Pickard, Canadian director general for communications for the Beijing-headquartered Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, said he flew to Tokyo on Wednesday because he feared for his safety following what he claimed was an intrusion of the lender’s party.

The dispute, which underscores tensions at multilateral institutions trying to bridge the growing divide between China and the West, triggered an immediate reaction from Ottawa.

Canada’s Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said, “The Government of Canada will immediately freeze all government activities at the bank.” Freeland said she was launching a review with the AIIB into both the allegations and Canada’s “involvement”.

The furore broke out after Picard wrote on Twitter that “as a patriotic Canadian” his only way out was to resign and leave Beijing.

“These people are like an invisible government inside the bank and I can’t be a part of it,” Picard told the Financial Times from Tokyo. “I don’t want to be a useful idiot.”

The AIIB said in a statement that Picard’s “recent public comments and characterizations of the bank are baseless and disappointing”.

AIIB said, “We are proud of our multilateral mission and AIIB has a diverse international team representing 65 different nationalities and members, serving our 106 members around the world, many of whom have been members since our formation in 2016. been with us ever since.”

The allegation is a challenge to efforts by the AIIB and its chairman, former Chinese Vice Finance Minister Jin Liqun, to present the bank as an independently managed multilateral institution.

Although China is the largest shareholder with 26.6 percent voting rights, the bank’s 106 members include several Western countries, including Canada, the UK, Italy and France.

The bank ceased its transactions with Russia at the outbreak of the Ukraine war and has an AAA credit rating, which allows it to raise capital at very low cost.

In an internal memo seen by the FT, Jin told staff that management was aware of Picard’s allegations and was “addressing the situation”.

“We recognize that these comments may cause uncertainty for all of us who work at AIIB. We hope that you will join us in wishing Bob the best for his future,” Jin said.

An AIIB insider said the allegations were not in line with what he had seen while working at the bank for several years and was an “unfortunate characterization” that reflected an individual’s perspective.

Three other people familiar with the matter questioned Picard’s allegations, saying they did not see evidence to support his claims that the party was running the bank.

Pickard said he had made clear his concerns about the party’s influence in writing on two occasions last month.

Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the UK Treasury from 2010 to 2015, serves as the AIIB’s Vice President of “Policy and Strategy”.

Picard said he has observed that all departments of the bank, from the office of the president down, are comprised of members of the Communist Party of China, who quietly run things in a way that undermines their claims of transparency.

“Internally, I have raised my concerns about the CCP’s influence. When you work there for some time you realize that it is actually a hidden hand of the bank internally,” he said.

International commercial institutions have come under fire for allowing the Chinese Communist Party to operate within them. The FT revealed last year that HSBC had become the first overseas lender to set up a Chinese Communist Party committee in its mainland subsidiary.

According to Chinese law, companies with three or more CCP members must have an organization “to carry out Party activities”.

Pickard said he had resigned in writing two days earlier but decided it was unsafe to remain in China, which has imprisoned Canadian citizens on charges that Ottawa described as “arbitrary”.

The AIIB was established in 2016 as a China-led alternative to the Bretton Woods multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and IMF.