From the article:
During the Cold War, communist China shunned the capitalist World Bank. But once China embraced the institution in 1980 it quickly became one of the bank's largest borrowers of all time – taking out loans of more than $60 billion over the last four decades.
Today China is sitting on cash reserves of some $3 trillion. It's the world's second largest economy behind the U.S. It directly lends more money to other nations each year than the $2 billion or so it borrows from the World Bank.
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An analysis of the World Bank lending to China released earlier in January found that most of the new loans are focused in the poorer, inland parts of China. The analysis by the Center for Global Development also found that about 38 percent are targeted for what the bank calls "global public goods"-- issues that affect people beyond China's borders such as climate change and pollution.
"China is the world's largest polluter today and the biggest single category of expenditures for the World Bank is in this area," says Scott Morris, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and the lead author of the report.
