Canada Halts Activities With China-Led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Ottawa says it will cease all activity at the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) while it investigates allegations made by the bank’s global communications director after announcing his resignation.

“The Canadian government will also discuss this issue with its allies and partners who are members of the bank. China, as the world’s second-largest economy, needs to play a role in solving global problems which affect every country,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on June 14.

Freeland said the federal government would launch a review of allegations made by Bob Pickard, a Canadian, who resigned as AIIB’s director general of global communications earlier in the day. Pickard alleged that the bank, which was founded in 2016 to finance railways and other infrastructure, is “dominated” by the Chinese Communist Party.

“As a patriotic Canadian, this was my only course,” Pickford said while announcing his resignation on Twitter. “The Bank is dominated by Communist Party members and also has one of the most toxic cultures imaginable. I don’t believe that my country’s interests are served by its AIIB membership.”

More to come