Canada suspends work with Chinese-founded development bank while it investigates complaints

By JOE McDONALD
AP Business Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Canada’s finance minister says it is suspending activity with a Chinese-founded development bank while it investigates complaints by a Canadian who resigned from the lender, saying it is dominated by “Communist Party hacks” and his country shouldn’t be a member. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank confirmed Bob Pickard resigned as its director general of global communications. It rejected his criticism as unfounded. The bank, seen by some as a Chinese rival to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, was founded in 2016 to finance railways and other infrastructure. Chrystia Freeland, who also is Canada’s deputy prime minister, said democracies need to limit “strategic vulnerabilities to authoritarian regimes.”