The World Bank has done it again. Days after pausing publication of the ‘Doing Business 2021’ report apparently because Beijing fooled the World Bank, the Washington-based institution is now going head over heels for the Chinese economy in a bid to help Beijing attract overseas investors to bail out a dipping Chinese economy.
Chinese state-run media outlet, China Global Television Network, has triumphantly reported that according to the World Bank, the Chinese economy is projected to grow at 2 per cent in 2020, up from the projection of 1 per cent released in June. CGTN has stated that as per the World Bank’s October 2020 Economic Update for East Asia and the Pacific, China’s growth will be boosted by “government spending, strong exports and a low rate of new COVID-19 infections since March.”
Here, the World Bank is again buying fake Chinese statistics about ‘strong exports’ and ‘low rate of new COVID-19 infections’. The level of global trade has come down significantly and then there is also a lot of global outrage against Chinese products. As for COVID-19, we already know how Beijing has refused to disclose anything about the contagion.
Having been fooled in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings, the World Bank is again letting China fool it. The World Bank doesn’t seem to have learned its lessons even after the ‘Doing Business’ list controversy.
The World Bank further predicts that economy in the rest of the region is expected to contract by 3.5 per cent. World Bank’s predictions for 2021 is even more unrealistic and if we may add blatantly pro-China. The Washington-based inter-governmental institution has stated that prospects are brighter for 2021, with China’s growth expected to hit 7.9 per cent.
China will, of course, boast the new latest predictions made by the World Bank. It desperately needed such a prediction from an inter-governmental institution at a time when the Chinese economy is passing through a very rough patch. Beijing, therefore, wants to attract global investors for which it needed such a positive outlook from an organisation like the World Bank.
In fact, China which had never truly opened its financial markets to the outer world has been making all possible attempts to woo foreign investors. For ensuring that foreign investors actually get attracted, China has been predicting a miraculous rebound in its shrinking economy.
We know that Chinese economy got several jolts this year- firstly, the Wuhan virus Pandemic, then the man-made floods in China and also the US-led decoupling that started almost as soon as China’s dirty pandemic secrets started getting exposed. Today, China is staring into deep famines and destitution. But the World Bank thinks that China will clock what can be described as a healthy growth rate in terms of the ongoing Financial Year.
The World Bank has had an entire history of favouring China over its foremost duty of prompting global financial growth and stability. In fact, the Washington-based inter-governmental body has been illegitimately aiding China’s growth by irrationally doling out generous loans to a giant, global creditor like Beijing. But now the World Bank seems to be comprising even upon reliability and accuracy for aiding China.
We suppose the World Bank’s growth numbers are based on Chinese statistics or information. Now, why does the World Bank feel that China is revealing true numbers? And secondly, why should we believe the World Bank? If the World Bank got fooled once, isn’t it entirely possible that China is fooling it again?
It is deplorable that an inter-governmental organisation as highly reputed as the World Bank should be showering praise on China even when China’s dirty lies are out in the open for everyone to see. The World Bank should have ideally banished China but it seems that the supranational organisation is out there to do paint a rosy picture of China’s economy all over again.
