P.M. BRIEFING : Renew Loans, Beijing Asks
China on Thursday called on the Asian Development Bank to renew loans suspended since last June’s crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing.
Li Guixian, governor of the People’s Bank of China, told the annual ADB meeting here that the bank was wrong to suspend loans on the basis of the domestic political affairs of its members. He said he hopes to repair relations with the bank soon.
The ADB, under the prompting of its major Western shareholders, cut off new loans to China after the crackdown in Tian An Men Square. It now makes only humanitarian loans to China and supplies funds approved before June, 1989.
Delegates said the ADB board of governors, representing 49 member governments, is unlikely to make any fresh loans to China soon.
One delegate said any decision to renew lending to China will probably not come before a Group of Seven meeting of industrialized nations in Houston in July.
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