World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has criticised China and its banks for ignoring human rights and environmental standards when lending to developing countries in Africa, the Financial Times reported. Wolfowitz said the banks ignored "Equator Principles", a voluntary code of conduct launched in 2003 pledging that financed projects meet certain social and environmental standards. He said Chinese banks are "relatively new" to lending in Africa but they "must not make the same mistakes as France and the US did with [President] Mobutu's Zaire". Joseph Mobutu Sese-Seiko became ruler of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in a coup in 1960 with US backing and bankrupted the country after borrowing heavily from western banks and institutions, including the World Bank. "I hope in time our viewpoints will converge," Wolfowitz said. Almost 80% of commercial banks worldwide have adopted the guidelines.
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