World Bank to Enhance Supervision of Project in China’s Xinjiang

(Bloomberg) -- The World Bank will reduce the scope of a project in China’s Xinjiang region and supervise the work more closely after a fact-finding review spurred by concern that the lender’s funds might be used to support the nation’s crackdown on minority Muslim Uighurs.

The examination follows an August letter to World Bank President David Malpass from U.S. Representative James McGovern and Senator Marco Rubio, chair and co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, raising concerns about a possible overlap between the lender’s vocational efforts in the region and the country’s internment of minorities in its far west.

The World Bank said in a statement released Monday in Washington that its review of the Xinjiang Technical and Vocational Education and Training Project did not substantiate the allegations. The bank approved a $50 million loan in 2015 to support five public vocational colleges in the region.

“The team conducted a thorough review of project documents, engaged in discussions with project staff, and visited schools directly financed by the project, as well as their partner schools that were the subject of allegations,” the bank said in the statement.

The scope and footprint of the project are being reduced given the broad and difficult-to-monitor risks associated with partner schools, and the project component that involves the partner schools in Xinjiang is being closed, the bank said. The project will also be placed under “enhanced supervision.”

“To further support project supervision, a Washington-based international staff member will co-lead the project, and every second project visit will be led by a senior manager,” the bank said.

The World Bank said its support includes helping to set the curriculum, developing teaching teams, and better matching student training and skills with the needs of local employers. Partner schools under the project benefited from less than 1% of the bank’s financing, according to the statement.

McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Florida Republican Rubio said in their Aug. 13 letter that their concern “stems from the fact that the Chinese government is interning over a million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic Muslims in an expanding system of mass internment camps.”

They asked whether the bank had investigated the possible overlap between internment camps and the vocational schools, whether any minority staff or students at any of the five institutions in the original project plan were detained, and if the lender would end its support for the education projects.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Kearns in Washington at jkearns3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Lanman at slanman@bloomberg.net, Vince Golle

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.