June 26, 1999	atimes.com

China Beijing awaits crucial World Bank decision on loan By Antoaneta Bezlova BEIJING - Beijing is watching anxiously a brewing controversy at the Washington headquarters of the World Bank, stirred by a proposed bank-sponsored project aimed at reducing poverty in China, but which Tibetans vigorously oppose. Winning the bank's support for the project is of vital political and financial importance for China. The project, involving the immigration of tens of thousands of Chinese farmers into a land Tibetans consider historically theirs would help Chinese leadership strike two major goals. It would help them deliver on lofty promises for poverty eradication by the end of the century and strengthen ''national unity'' and ''social stability'' in sensitive minority regions like Tibet. The World Bank has put off twice its decision to fund the project after it came under fire from various Tibet support groups, environmental activists, members of the American Congress and even some of its own executive directors. Its 24-member executive board was supposed to vote on Thursday on whether to proceed with the $160 million loan, after it delayed a decision that had been due on Tuesday. Last week, 11 of the World Bank's 24 executive directors sent a letter to James Wolfensohn, the Bank's president, asking him to pull or alter the loan because the project failed to meet the bank standards of loan evaluation and disclosure of information. Chinese President Jiang Zemin has vowed to boost poverty-relief efforts and development in western China in a bid to maintain stability. He said it is ''top on the central Government's agenda'' to accelerate the development of the western and frontier areas because most of China's minority ethnic groups live there. ''Promoting economic development there is of great significance to maintaining local political and social stability,'' Jiang said in a forum in Xian, capital of Shaanxi province, earlier this month ''Such a move can also strengthen national unity and ensure tight security of border areas,'' he added. The proposed China Western Poverty Reduction Project fits perfectly into the government's policy of balancing economic prosperity with keeping a tight lid on any separatist activities in the troubled regions of Tibet and Xinjiang. The poverty alleviation scheme will see the transfer of nearly 58,000 poor farmers, mainly Han and Hui Muslim Chinese from an overcrowded part of the eastern Qinghai province to a sparsely populated western part of Qinghai. The province is adjacent to the Tibet Autonomous Region and is the birthplace of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, who is campaigning against the project. The Dalai Lama has appealed to the bank to reconsider financing the project because of its long term implications for the Tibetan culture and national identity in the traditional Tibetan lands. The scheme has met with serious opposition from the U.S. government, which is the World Bank's biggest shareholder. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin was quoted by the Tibet Information Network (TIN) as saying that the U.S. government was ''enormously concerned'' about the project and ''inclined to oppose it." The Tibet lobby denounces the project as a scheme that will dilute the Tibetan population in the area and weaken its Tibetan national identity. Dulan county in western Qinghai, where Chinese farmers are to be re-settled, was traditionally part of Tibet, which China had formally endorsed as a an area of ''Tibetan autonomy." According to World Bank figures, the transplant of Chinese settlers would reduce the percentage of Tibetans in the area from 22.7 per cent to 14 per cent. Environmental groups have their own complaints. They point to the Environmental Impact Assessment published by the bank, which states that 100 per cent of herdsmen and farmers interviewed in the move- in area worry that ''the cutting of the vegetation will destroy the ecological environment and the wild animals and plant resources." China rejects these allegations. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said on Tuesday the project had been scrutinized during a three-year feasibility study and ''meticulous preparations'' have been made to comply with the World Bank's lending policies. She said implementation of the project will respect the ''free choice made by local people involved'' and said the project had their ''vigorous support." Other Chinese officials have sought support for the plan. Last weekend, Vice-Minister Jin Liqun was quoted in the English language newspaper China Daily as saying the government was hoping the bank's decision on the plan will not be based on political grounds. ''We hope the board members will adhere to the bank's principle of supporting development . . . and block efforts to politicize the bank,'' Jin said. The project will cover 57,775 poor farmers, a number which seems tiny compared with the 42 million that China says are still living in poverty in the country. The government is seriously worried that plans to eradicate poverty by the end of 2000 are lagging behind; thus decisions made by donors on poverty relief projects are regarded as truly important. Jiang Zemin told a national poverty alleviation conference this month that the government will be able to lift only 20 million people from poverty by the end of this century. This means the leadership would not be able to deliver on a ''solemn pledge'' made by the Communists when they came to power 50 years ago. (Inter Press Service)

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