US President Donald Trump allegedly criticized the World Bank on Friday, Trump blamed the international financial institution for lending money to China. As the US President believes that China already has enough, and why should World Bank lend money to country like China.
Trump took to his Twitter and said, “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!”
US president was allegedly reiterating a position long held by his administration, including David Malpass when he was serving as the Treasury Department official prior to his election as the current head of the World Bank.
Trump’s message on the World Bank was also repeated by his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who addressed a House of Representatives committee on Thursday and said that the United States “has objected” to the institution’s multi-year program of loans and projects in China.
That program was however adopted on Thursday. Now, it plans to reduce its lending to China.
The program “reflects the evolution of our relationship with China,” Martin Raiser, World Bank Country Director for China, in a statement said, “Our engagement will be increasingly selective.”
As the reduction doesn’t seem to be enough for Washington, because it argues that the world’s second-largest economy is rich enough, it has plenty to finance itself and not depending on loans from the World Bank, which is set to bring financial resources to poor countries only.
Trump’s very public stance came amidst negotiations between Washington and Beijing, as both were seeking to end the US president’s 18-month-long trade war. The whole thing seem to aim at forcing China to make concessions on protecting American businesses and reducing its trade surplus.
However, the date of a possible partial agreement has not yet been finalized as everything seems uncertain as of now, which was said to be impending in October according to Trump.
