China's representative to the bank, Zhu Xian, said his government would pay for the initiative on its own because it objected to conditions the bank's directors wanted to impose on the anti-poverty project.
China is the bank's largest borrower.
I was interested in the poverty aspect and I thought the bank could play a useful role in the project. Pro-Tibet and environmental groups have opposed the project for more than a year, contending that China wants to dilute the minority Tibetan population in western Qinghai province. Environmental groups objected to the part of the plan that would underwrite construction of dams and irrigation canals in the resettlement area. The controversy the project touched off could go beyond Tibet and lead to closer examination of the political and social implications of World Bank projects elsewhere. After meeting Thursday and Friday, the bank's 24 executive directors voted 14-10 against Wolfensohn's recommendations to conduct further studies on the project over the next 15 to 18 months and let him then decide whether to go ahead without another vote, two meeting participants said.