Washington: US President Donald Trump lashed out at the World Bank on Friday for loaning money to China.
“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.
Trump’s statement on the World Bank was also supported by his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who told a House of Representatives committee on Thursday that the United States “has objected” to the institution’s multi-year program of loans and projects in China.
The World Bank on Thursday adopted a plan to aid China with $1 billion to $1.5 billion in low-interest loans annually through June 2025. The plan calls for lending to gradually decline from the previous five-year average of $1.8 billion.
But the reduction is not enough for Washington, which argues that the world’s second-largest economy is rich enough to finance itself and not depend on loans from the World Bank, which is supposed to bring financial resources to poor countries.
Trump’s very public stance comes amid negotiations between Washington and Beijing seeking to end the US president’s 18-month-long trade war, which is aimed at forcing China to make concessions on protecting American businesses and reducing its trade surplus.