New Report Examines China’s Expanding Role in Multilateral Development Banks

China is increasingly turning to Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to pursue its geopolitical agenda and promote alternate norms of global governance, according to a new report published on Wednesday by the London-based Overseas Development Institute.

The report by Chris Humphrey and Yunnan Chen explains how over the past twenty years Beijing was denied the opportunity to expand its share of the leading MDBs like World Bank and IMF, even as its economy grew to become the world’s second-largest. That prompted Chinese actors to launch their own MDBs like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank (aka the “BRICS Bank”) that in some cases dwarfed the resources of the Bretton Woods institutions.

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by Eric Olander

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