US President Donald Trump urges World Bank to stop lending money to China
- Beijing ‘has plenty of money, and if they don’t, they create it’, he says
- Tweet comes after bank agrees five-year low-interest loan programme worth US$1 billion to US$1.5 billion annually
“Why is the World Bank loaning money to China? Can this be possible? China has plenty of money, and if they don’t, they create it. STOP!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The president was reiterating a position long held by his administration, including David Malpass, a former US treasury department official who took over as head of the World Bank earlier this year.
Trump’s message was echoed by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who told a House of Representatives committee on Thursday that the US “has objected” to the institution’s multi-year programme of loans and projects in China.
That programme of aiding China with US$1 billion to US$1.5 billion in low-interest loans annually through June 2025 was nonetheless adopted on Thursday. It plans to reduce its lending to China.
The World Bank said the loans in the five-year plan would be aimed at advancing market and fiscal reforms, promoting greener growth and increasing citizens’ access to health and social services. The World Bank loaned China US$1.3 billion in the financial year ended June 30, down from about US$2.4 billion two years earlier.