China has lent more money to developing nations than the World Bank in the past two years, the Financial Times newspaper said Tuesday, underlining Beijing's ambitions to increase its global influence.
China lent at least $110 billion to governments and firms in other developing countries in 2009 and 2010, surpassing the $100.3 billion by the World Bank, the newspaper reported.
The statistics were compiled from public announcements by banks, borrowers or China's government, it said.
The Chinese government, sitting on more than $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, has since 2009 stepped up its backing of state companies scouring the globe for assets and raw material supplies.
Banks such as China Development Bank, Export-Import Bank of China and Bank of China, have extended loans in return for guaranteed oil supplies, and also lent money for infrastructure projects in countries such as Ghana and Argentina.
It said the loans offered more preferential terms than the World Bank on deals that were supported by Beijing.
That has led the World Bank to look for ways to work with Beijing to avoid rivalry on such loans, the paper said.
"One of the topics I have been discussing with the Chinese authorities is how we can work with them to share our mutual experience to support other developing countries, whether in south-east Asia or Africa," the World Bank's president, Robert Zoellick, said last year, according to the Financial Times.
Chinese president in U.S.
The news came as Chinese President Hu Jintao flew to the United States Tuesday for a state visit buffeted before he even lands by senior U.S. senators demanding tough action against China for "manipulating" its currency.
Hu said earlier this week he would not accept U.S. arguments the yuan was undervalued.
The latest sparring over the currency underlines tensions over trade that will likely dominate Wednesday's summit in Washington between Hu and U.S. President Barack Obama.
Their talks are expected to focus on a host of other thorny issues, from rebalancing the global economy to dealing with North Korea.
Analysts are calling the visit the most important by a Chinese leader in 30 years given China's growing military and diplomatic influence and its emergence as the world's second largest economy after the United States.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said his government hoped U.S. lawmakers did not sour the tone ahead of Hu's arrival, repeating that China was committed to reforming its exchange rate system.
"A great many factors have proven that the renminbi's (yuan's) exchange rate policy is not the main cause of the China-U.S. trade imbalance," Hong said. "We hope relevant U.S. lawmakers ... avoid harming the overall interests of China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation."
A group of U.S. senators said on Monday the United States had to pass legislation to punish China if it fails to allow its currency to rise in value rather than manage its rate, giving it an unfair advantage in global trade.
"There's no bigger step we can take to preserve the American dream and promote job creation, particularly in the manufacturing sector ... than to confront China's manipulation of its currency," Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said.
'We are fed up'
"(The message to Hu is) we are fed up with your government's intransigence on currency manipulation. If you refuse to play by the same rules, we will force you to do so," Schumer said during a conference call with two other senators on a proposed bill to prod China on the yuan.
Hu, in a written interview with The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, said China had taken steps toward a more flexible exchange rate policy.
The yuan has risen nearly 3.5 percent against the dollar since Beijing ended its peg to the dollar in June, much less than demanded by critics in the United States.
China counters that the United States should do more itself to rebalance the trade relationship. Chinese statistics showed a surplus in China's favor of $181 billion in 2010.
Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Yao Jian said the United States should lift restrictions on exports, especially of high-tech goods, and make it easier for Chinese firms to invest there.
"Balanced trade between the two countries does not only need China's efforts but also the opening of the U.S. market," Yao told reporters in Beijing.