[Postal Savings Bank of China / Financial Times]
BIC Executive Director Chad Dobson was quoted in a Financial Times article by Shawn Donnan about the Postal Savings Bank of China and the IFC, which has “become emblematic of the often subtle ways in which Beijing and Washington battle for influence behind closed doors at the World Bank.”
Because those directors abstained rather than voted against, the investment went ahead. But in the nuanced arena of World Bank board politics where outright votes against projects backed by powerful shareholders such as China are rare the vote amounted to a dramatic rebuke to Mr Cai.
“It’s very unusual,” said Chad Dobson, executive director of the Bank Information Center, a Washington-based campaign group focused on the World Bank. “They don’t [normally] go to the board when they are going to lose a vote.”