Canada acting on pride and prejudice, not facts
Following claims by a former Canadian employee of the institution that it is "dominated" by members of the Communist Party of China, the Canadian government has frozen the country's ties with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank while it conducts an investigation.
Speaking at a financial forum in Paris on Friday, AIIB President Jin Liqun said that he is not worried about Canada's so-called investigation as the other major shareholding countries have all shown their support to the multilateral financial institution. As Jin noted, the Canadian side has hyped up the claim for its own purposes.
"I don't think a serious government would make a decision without a basis. We consider all the allegations to be baseless. We have a strong governance structure that follows best international practice," Jin was quoted as saying.
Although it is the bank's largest shareholder, China always adheres to the bank's charter, multilateral rules and procedures and participates in its decision-making through the Board of Governors, the Board of Directors and other multilateral governance mechanisms.
Since its inception over seven years ago, with the joint efforts of its members, the AIIB has acted as a truly international, rules-based and high-standard institution and has achieved important progress in institution building, the development of strategies and policies, and in its investment portfolio, which has been recognized by the world.
The AIIB recruits and manages its staff in accordance with the principles of openness, merit-based selection and transparency. Its staff come from 65 countries and economies, who generally consider the AIIB to be a good employer.
As for the Canadian side's stress on "de-risking", it must be pointed out that China is an active contributor to maintaining world peace, promoting common development and responding to global challenges. The real risk facing the world is the ideological thinking that shapes the views of some Western governments and which prompts them to pursue bloc confrontation and a "new Cold War".
To this end they interfere in other countries' internal affairs and create turbulence and chaos. And they politicize economic and trade issues and undermine the stability of the global industry and supply chains, so as to transfer economic and financial risks to the rest of the world.
It is these risks that the international community should be vigilant against and jointly resist. With regard to the term "authoritarian government", some countries waywardly point fingers at other countries, make irresponsible remarks and even wield the big stick of sanctions. This kind of behavior is truly "authoritarian".
