Executive With Beijing-Led Infrastructure Bank Resigns, Says AIIB Dominated by Communist Party Members
The global communications chief for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has announced his resignation, saying in a statement on June 14 that the bank is being controlled by “Communist Party hacks” and that Canada’s interests are not served by being a member.
“As a patriotic Canadian, this was my only course,” said Canadian executive Bob Pickard of his resignation in a series of tweets Wednesday.
“The [AIIB] 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.”
Reacting to the development, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland said Canada will cease all activities with the bank for the time being, while saying her government will investigate the allegations made by Pickard.
“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,” Freeland said.
Pickard, who took on the role as Director General of Communications in AIIB in March 2022, said the “Communist Party hacks hold the cards” at the China-based bank, and that “they deal with some board members as useful idiots.”
“The reality of power in the bank is that it’s CCP [Chinese Communist Party] from start to finish,” he tweeted. “I believe that my Government should not be a member of this PRC [People’s Republic of China] instrument.”
‘Authoritarian model of Governance’
Established by the CCP on Christmas Day 2015, the AIIB was billed as the first global multilateral financial institution, operating as an alternative to the American and European-led World Bank and International Monetary Fund for funding infrastructure projects in countries throughout Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
Chinese experts have warned that Beijing’s aim in founding an international development bank is to pivot the world economy toward the communist state and away from the United States.
Started off with an initial 57 member states, the bank managed to entice countries across five continents, increasing its membership base to over 100 states in less than five years, according to Baidu, a Beijing-controlled Chinese information portal, as of July 2020.
The path for Western countries to join the AIIB against the wishes of the United States was paved by the U.K., which became a founding member of the bank in 2015.
In 2017, the Trudeau government contributed USD $995 million (approximately CAD 1.28 billion) to join the bank for a 1.07 percent stake.
In Europe, Italy, France and Germany likewise spent considerable amounts to obtain voting rights from two to about five percent since joining as members.
China remains the largest shareholder of AIIB with a 30 percent stake, and a 26 percent voting rights, enabling it to have veto power over major decisions, which require 75 percent consensus.
Reacting to the development, Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said the executive’s resignation “has confirmed what Conservatives have long said” about the AIIB.
“It’s a tool of the Beijing to export its authoritarian model of governance throughout the Indo-Pacific region,” he said on Twitter. He also reiterated his party’s position to have the federal government withdraw from AIIB and “repatriate the public funds invested.”
In March 2021, former Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to cancel a USD $40 million payment to the China-led agency amid the arbitrarily detention of Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig at the time.
‘Secret Police’
Pickard said in his tweets though the Chinese regime “runs the joint,” he did not notice it when he first started.
“It’s only after working there for many months that I became aware of how that’s where the true power is concentrated inside the bank – the CCP crowd who operate like a secret police,” he wrote.
The AIIB issued a statement shortly after Pickard’s announcement.
“Mr. Pickard’s recent public comments and characterization of the bank are baseless and disappointing,” said the bank. “We are proud of our multilateral mission and have a diverse international team representing 65 different nationalities.”
Global Affairs Canada has previously warned that Beijing’s motive for establishing the AIIB is to use its economic clout to export its authoritarian governance model around the world.
The department’s 2019 briefing papers later released by the Commons Canada-China relations committee in 2020 described the bank and Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative as the means of pushing that model.
In February 2021, the Commons finance committee chaired by former Liberal MP Wayne Easter, released a report recommending that Canada withdraw from investing in the CCP-led AIIB.
Gu Feng, Omid Ghoreishi, Peter Wilson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
