This loan is a drop in the bucket, but it has taken on symbolic
importance. Summers, following the lead of his predecessor, opposed that
loan on political grounds.
This is an example of bogus issues, but even if one grant Summers and
company the benefit of th doubt on the sincerity of their opposition, a
question of the correct priority of development can be of interest to
listers.
Henry C.K. Liu
China Hails World Bank Loan, Welcomes Scrutiny
BEIJING, Jun 25, 1999 -- (Reuters) China
praised the World Bank on Friday for
approving a controversial $160 million loan
to resettle poor Chinese farmers despite
opposition from the institution's biggest
shareholders and angry Tibetan activists.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement it
welcomed scrutiny of the resettlement
program in traditional Tibetan lands by
World Bank officials, foreign governments
and journalists. The statement made no
mention of the United States, which a
ministry spokeswoman denounced on
Thursday for opposing the loan.
The spokeswoman had demanded the
United States drop its opposition to the
loan and "stop using the Tibetan issue to
interfere in China's internal affairs".
The loan would be used in part to resettle
58,000 Chinese farmers from fallow hills in
Qinghai province to sparsely populated
fertile lands in the province, which
Tibetans regard as part of their historic
territory.
Exiled Tibetan activists, human rights groups and
some U.S. officials said the program would dilute Tibetan culture and
influence in the area and open the door to future
exploitation of resources by ethnic Chinese.
World Bank officials and China say people of all
ethnic backgrounds would benefit from new schools, medical facilities
and irrigation systems made possible by the loans.
The ministry statement thanked World Bank
shareholders and officials for "upholding justice and safeguarding the
bank's principles" against politicizing loans.
It welcomed World Bank officials and foreign
governments and journalists to travel to Qinghai province -- birthplace of
Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama -- to conduct
"investigations" into the program.
The World Bank had postponed debate on the loan for
two days until Thursday so bank president James Wolfensohn could return
from a conference in Paris to personally chair the meeting. Wolfensohn
secured a compromise which would delay the contentious resettlement
portion of the loan until after an inspection panel reviewed whether the
bank violated its own rules on the environment, resettlement and
disclosure.
The panel's findings would be presented to the
board, which would vote within two months on whether a full-blown
investigation was warranted.
The loan was approved on Thursday even though the
bank's largest and third-largest shareholders -- the United States and
Germany -- voted against it. The bank rarely approves loans against a U.S.
vote and never on such a high-profile project.
China lobbied hard to push the loan through despite
opposition from U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Lawrence Summers, 60
members of Congress, Tibetan interest groups and almost half of the bank's
24-member board.
The U.S. vote against the loan could worsen the
diplomatic chill between the two powers following NATO's bombing of the
Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, which killed three Chinese
journalists.
Critics complained the loan violated the bank's
policies on resettlement and its indigenous peoples policy and that the
bank failed to publicly disclose information about the project in a timely
fashion. ((c) 1999 Reuters)
