Britain\u2019s representative on the bank\u2019s board is Sir Danny Alexander, the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Government is being \u2018played for fools\u2019 and must freeze ties with Beijing\u2019s answer to the World Bank, according to a top official who left the organisation over allegations it was controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n
Bob Pickard recently resigned as communications chief for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which the British taxpayer funds to the tune of \u00a32.5 billion, claiming it was \u2018dominated\u2019 by Party apparatchiks.<\/p>\n
The Beijing-based lender finances projects in developing countries \u2013 many of them allied to China.<\/p>\n
But the Government\u2019s ties with the AIIB have become increasingly controversial as fears grow about Beijing\u2019s expansionist policies, its involvement in key UK industries such as telecoms and nuclear and, latterly, concerns about \u2018Chinese spies\u2019 in Westminster.<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s involvement with the AIIB dates back to David Cameron\u2019s coalition between 2010 and 2015, which was keen to curry favour with the Chinese, viewing them as potentially lucrative trade partners.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s representative on the bank\u2019s board is Sir Danny Alexander, the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury in Cameron\u2019s government.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pickard, who is Canadian, told The Mail on Sunday that UK membership of the AIIB \u2018makes China look good\u2019 but the West \u2018shouldn\u2019t sign up for that\u2019.<\/p>\n
AIIB employees like Alexander, he added, were \u2018feather-bedded ex-pats in highly compensated positions\u2019 who enjoyed \u2018a good living\u2019 but were only there to give the bank credibility and act as \u2018window-dressing\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018They are being used by the bank for the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s propaganda purposes,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n
\u2018They have co-opted many useful idiots. We have to open our eyes to this reality. We\u2019re being played for fools.\u2019<\/p>\n
Canada has paused its membership of the AIIB while it investigates Pickard\u2019s claims. Asked if the UK should do the same, Pickard said: \u2018Everyone has to look in the mirror, connect the dots and decide for themselves.\u2019<\/p>\n
The AIIB has more than 100 member nations \u2013 including Russia \u2013 and is run by Jin Liqun, formerly of the Communist Red Guards.<\/p>\n
Western nations including the US and Japan have declined to join the bank, which counts China as its largest shareholder.<\/p>\n
Last night Lord Alton of Liverpool, a crossbench peer who has been banned from China, called on Britain to review it membership of the bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said: \u2018It is reprehensible to be oiling the wheels of organisations linked to this totalitarian regime and lining their pockets with UK taxpayers\u2019 money. The AIIB is basically a state-linked bank funding projects which further the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.\u2019<\/p>\n
A recent report by Parliament\u2019s Intelligence and Security Committee found it was \u2018possible\u2019 Alexander\u2019s appointment to the AIIB board \u2013 and Cameron\u2019s role at a \u00a31 billion China-UK investment fund \u2013 \u2018were in some part engineered by the Chinese state to lend credibility to Chinese investment, as well as to the broader China brand\u2019.<\/p>\n
One of the projects funded by the AIIB involves a firm with links to alleged abuses of Uyghur Muslims in China\u2019s Xinjiang province.<\/p>\n
A Treasury spokesman said the AIIB\u2019s internal review found Pickard\u2019s allegations were \u2018unsubstantiated\u2019. \u2018We will continue to work with the AIIB and partners to support robust governance and processes at the AIIB,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n
The AIIB and Alexander were contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/ad-slot><\/ad-slot><\/div>\nRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain urged to freeze ties with AIIB – China’s answer to the World Bank By Patrick Tooher Updated: 08:34 EDT, 17 September 2023 Britain\u2019s representative on the bank\u2019s board is Sir Danny Alexander, the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury The Government is being \u2018played for fools\u2019 and must freeze ties with Beijing\u2019s answer to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12078,7925,753,2338,7216,23,2615,421,427,3773,5954,12001],"acf":{"source_article":"","image_credit":""},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}