<p class="title">US President Donald Trump lashed out at the World Bank on Friday, blaming the international financial institution for lending money to China.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Why is the World Bank loaning money to China? Can this be possible? China has plenty of money, and if they don't, they create it. STOP!" Trump wrote on Twitter.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The president was reiterating a position long held by his administration, including David Malpass when he was a Treasury Department official prior to his election as the current head of the World Bank.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Trump's message on the World Bank was also echoed by his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who told a House of Representatives committee on Thursday that the United States "has objected" to the institution's multi-year program of loans and projects in China.</p>.<p class="bodytext">That program was nonetheless adopted on Thursday. It plans to reduce its lending to China.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The program "reflects the evolution of our relationship with China," Martin Raiser, World Bank Country Director for China, said on Thursday. "Our engagement will be increasingly selective."</p>.<p class="bodytext">But the reduction is not enough for Washington, which argues that the world's second-largest economy is rich enough to finance itself and not depend on loans from the World Bank, which is supposed to bring financial resources to poor countries.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Trump's very public stance comes amid negotiations between Washington and Beijing seeking to end the US president's 18-month-long trade war, which is aimed at forcing China to make concessions on protecting American businesses and reducing its trade surplus.</p>.<p class="bodytext">There is a great deal of uncertainty about the date of a possible partial agreement, which Trump said was imminent in October.</p>
<p class="title">US President Donald Trump lashed out at the World Bank on Friday, blaming the international financial institution for lending money to China.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Why is the World Bank loaning money to China? Can this be possible? China has plenty of money, and if they don't, they create it. STOP!" Trump wrote on Twitter.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The president was reiterating a position long held by his administration, including David Malpass when he was a Treasury Department official prior to his election as the current head of the World Bank.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Trump's message on the World Bank was also echoed by his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who told a House of Representatives committee on Thursday that the United States "has objected" to the institution's multi-year program of loans and projects in China.</p>.<p class="bodytext">That program was nonetheless adopted on Thursday. It plans to reduce its lending to China.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The program "reflects the evolution of our relationship with China," Martin Raiser, World Bank Country Director for China, said on Thursday. "Our engagement will be increasingly selective."</p>.<p class="bodytext">But the reduction is not enough for Washington, which argues that the world's second-largest economy is rich enough to finance itself and not depend on loans from the World Bank, which is supposed to bring financial resources to poor countries.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Trump's very public stance comes amid negotiations between Washington and Beijing seeking to end the US president's 18-month-long trade war, which is aimed at forcing China to make concessions on protecting American businesses and reducing its trade surplus.</p>.<p class="bodytext">There is a great deal of uncertainty about the date of a possible partial agreement, which Trump said was imminent in October.</p>