Paul Wolfowitz, the president of the World Bank, has sharply criticised China and its banks for ignoring human rights and environmental standards when lending to developing countries in Africa. Mr Wolfowitz said big Chinese banks ignored the so-called “Equator Principles”, a voluntary code of conduct pledging that projects financed by private bank lending met certain social and environmental standards... Almost 80 per cent of commercial banks worldwide have adopted the guidelines... He said that though Chinese banks lending in Africa were “relatively new to this kind of activity...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... But the issue was complex, and much depended on how these new loans were used. “If it’s a matter of buying luxury cars for ministers, it is bad borrowing,” he said. “On the other hand, good borrowing delivers big benefits, lifts national income...”