Canada has frozen all activity at the multilateral lender known as “China’s World Bank” after a top official resigned alleging the institution is run by Communist party members who “operate like an internal secret police”.
Bob Pickard, the Canadian director-general for communications of the Beijing-headquartered Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, said he flew to Tokyo on Wednesday because he feared for his safety after raising concerns about what he claimed was the party’s infiltration of the lender.
The controversy, which underlines the tensions in multilateral institutions trying to bridge the growing divide between China and the west, triggered an immediate response from Ottawa.