WASHINGTON DC (December 5, 2019) — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles "Chuck" Grassley wrote to World Bank President David Malpass requesting a meeting regarding recent reports of a highly-questionable $50 million loan provided to an organization associated with the forcible internment of Chinese Uighur Muslims, a population that has experienced grave human-rights violations at the hands of the communist Chinese government. Sen Grassley is requesting the meeting ahead of Congress’s consideration of a proposed capital increase for the World Bank for the next fiscal year and the International Development Association’s 19th funding replenishment.
“The World Bank has a responsibility to fully assess critical human-rights risks, such as those exhibited in Xinjiang, in any region where it considers allocating or lending money,” Sen Grassley wrote. “Given the repeated reports about repression in the province that date back years, it is hard to see how any project in that region could meet Word Bank’s social framework standards.”
Sen Grassley is seeking to learn more about how this loan was approved, the loan-oversight process, and to discuss the World Bank’s new oversight initiatives designed to prevent such a loan from being disbursed in the future.
Sen Grassley’s letter to Malpass can be found HERE.