"It's not like we're forcing the money on them," says the Chinese president of the AIIB development bank

Neue Zürcher Zeitung Germany "It's not like we're forcing the money on them," says the Chinese president of the AIIB development bank Article by Sabine Gusbeth, Beijing • 7 hours • 5 minutes reading time Jin Liqun, the president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, talks about China's answer to the World Bank. It is noticeable that Jin Liqun would rather talk about the strategy and projects of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Instead, the president of the development bank is repeatedly confronted with the accusation that China controls the bank. The AIIB was founded in 2016 on the initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping. It has 110 member states and is the second largest multilateral development bank in the world after the World Bank. By far the largest recipient country is India. Critics in the West see the AIIB as part of the Chinese leadership's plan to establish an alternative world order under Chinese dominance. Jin is aware of the accusations - and counters. The openness with which the 75-year-old speaks about sensitive topics in an interview with Handelsblatt is unusual for a high-ranking Chinese official. This sovereignty and his decades of experience in multilateral development banks, the Chinese Ministry of Finance and state financial institutions have probably benefited the bank's development to date. The AIIB very quickly put all projects in Russia on hold after Russia invaded Ukraine. This is remarkable, as China's government is sticking to its partnership with Russia. Did you have to obtain approval from the Chinese government for the decision? No. It was a management decision. We had to ensure that all partners, especially international financial institutions, continued to work with us after the outbreak of the military conflict. Does that mean it was a purely business decision? Of course. Our business interests as a multilateral development bank sometimes differ from the political interests of our member states. This is completely normal and is the same in other international institutions. But let me say something else about the influence of shareholders and people. Yes? Before this bank was founded, there was a lot of talk about the influence of some countries in existing institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank . . . . . . traditionally, the president of the World Bank is chosen by the USA and the director of the IMF by the Europeans. China has long criticized this. I'll say it quite openly: you can never completely escape the influence of the big shareholders. That is not negative per se. The question is how influence is exerted. Some European member countries, for example, are of the opinion that this bank should do more to combat climate change. We think that's a good thing. Because China and India are also working very hard to become climate neutral. But there are also always discussions, for example, when we finance projects outside Asia. Can you give an example? We will soon have 110 member countries, the majority from Asia, but also some so-called non-regional ones like Germany. Our focus is on Asia, and sometimes it takes some convincing from our Asian members when we want to finance projects in other regions of the world. But there are certainly infrastructure projects in Africa, for example, from which Asian countries benefit. For example, we are financing a road in Côte d’Ivoire. This will enable cashew farmers from remote mountain regions to bring their nuts more quickly to the port of Abidjan, from where they are shipped to Vietnam. Vietnam is an important cashew processor. So it is not the case that such an investment makes Africa richer and Asia poorer. Some in the West see the AIIB as part of the Chinese leadership’s plan to establish an alternative world order. The AIIB’s priorities are strikingly similar to the focus of Xi Jinping’s flagship project, the Belt and Road Initiative: green infrastructure, connectivity and technological infrastructure. It is true that both the Belt and Road Initiative and the AIIB were launched by China. But the AIIB operates by its own rules. Every member country can propose projects. China has never asked us to finance a project because it is a Silk Road project. We do not have this category. We only finance projects that meet our high standards. When he resigned in 2023, former communications chief Bob Pickard publicly accused the bank of being dominated by the Communist Party. I reacted very calmly to this. Because everyone knows how decisions are made in this bank. They are prepared by the responsible board member, then discussed in the management