Opinion     

AIIB not aimed at challenging US

China Daily, April 1, 2015

• The paranoid legacy [By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn]

  
  
  

  To the disappointment of Washington, the Beijing-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is expected to have more than 40 founding members, many of them close allies of the United States, by the end of March. Following in the footsteps of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland, Austria have applied to join the AIIB.

  Irrespective of what the US believes, these countries and regions are not trying to challenge its leadership in the Asia-Pacific region. Instead, they are eager to maximize their national interests by getting more involved in the booming Asian economy.

  For China, the establishment of the AIIB will complement its Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives. After all, the State-owned Export-Import Bank of China invested more in global infrastructure than the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank last year.

  Many developing economies in Asia are willing to cooperate with China for infrastructure development to maintain economic growth. In fact, Asia will need infrastructure investment of at least $8 trillion between 2010 and 2020, and the ADB with its annual investment of $10 billion in the region can barely meet that need. This should clear all doubts about the AIIB’s economic importance to Asia.

  In effect, it was not until the UK decided to be an AIIB founding member that the US started paying greater attention to the bank. But since the US State Department had “welcomed” China’s proposal, Washington should honor its words and stop trying o create obstacles for the AIIB, especially when there is not much it can do after its ally, the Republic of Korea, decided to become a founding member on March 26.

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