The launch of the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the reaction of Japan and other US allies in the Asia-Pacific Region

The Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) faces monumental challenges derived from institutional and financial accountability, as well as the ability to deliver on its promises of increased economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region. Nevertheless, China is resolute in cementing its economic position in the global market and expanding its regional influence. The main justification for instituting AIIB is to provide secured loans to underdeveloped Asia-Pacific countries ineligible to obtain funds through other global financial institutions. However, by lessening loan barriers, AIIB’s approach threatens to give rise to regional economic volatility — a vice adamantly despised under the Bretton Woods system. The pivotal element that defines AIIB’s outcome is a well-diversified cofounding member cohort insistent on implementing sound regulatory measures. AIIB needs a divergent membership that considers the socio-economic determinants of individual requestors, allowing for well-diversified and well-balanced opinions on operating principles. Without this element China might be subjugating its clients, the Asia-Pacific countries, to yet another form of manipulation that was shunned under the Bretton Woods system. Would this be another subtle attempt of Chinese influence for a stake in regional hegemony under a guise of alleviating the impoverished regions of Asia-Pacific? Transparency, emphasis on operating principles enacted with democratic accord and accountability should serve as guiding blocks of the well-diversified cofounding cohort. These measures would hold China to its vows of increased prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region, which it is attempting to deliver through AIIB. This paper examines the advantages of the AIIB as well as drawbacks that could place the Asia-Pacific countries into another “golden straitjacket” if these propositions are not taken into consideration.

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Who joins counter-hegemonic IGOs? Early and late members of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Research & Politics ◽

10.1177/2053168018770031 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 205316801877003 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Vinícius Rodrigues Vieira

Keyword(s):

Democratic Governance ◽

Asia Pacific ◽

Infrastructure Investment ◽

Intergovernmental Organizations ◽

Asia Pacific Region ◽

Investment Bank ◽

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank ◽

United Nations General ◽

The Us ◽

United Nations General Assembly

What makes states join intergovernmental organizations intended to challenge a hegemon? The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), founded in June 2015, targets the primacy of the US-led Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the Asia-Pacific region, and is a crucial case for answering this question. I argue that early AIIB members are likely to be politically distant from the US in both international and domestic terms. In contrast, subsequent states seeking AIIB membership include democratic states, existing ADB members and countries internationally aligned with the US, as measured by voting similarity at the United Nations General Assembly. Through logit models, I test these propositions and analyze which states adhered to the 2014 Memorandum of Understanding that signaled Beijing’s willingness to form the Bank and which states joined the AIIB subsequently at its foundation in 2015. The results support my claim that early members tend to score low in democratic governance, while late members are US allies.

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Bid for Regional Hegemony: China's Soft Power Strategy in Asia Pacific

Global International Relations Review ◽

10.31703/girr.2020(iii-i).04 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol III (I) ◽

pp. 27-33

Author(s):

Muhammad Imran Ashraf ◽

Sehrish Khan Saddozai

Keyword(s):

Social Factors ◽

Soft Power ◽

Social Acceptance ◽

Asia Pacific ◽

Infrastructure Investment ◽

Pacific Region ◽

Asia Pacific Region ◽

Investment Bank ◽

Social Legitimacy ◽

Definition Of

China aspires to be a regional hegemon in Asia Pacific region—this requires material as well as social factors This paper focuses on how China is utilizing its soft power to gain social legitimacy in the region. Using Joseph Nye's soft power, it argues that China is using its soft power to develop social acceptance for its new desired role in the region. In this vein, China's Belt Road Initiative (BRI) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) are enhancing China's soft power in Asia Pacific region. The paper employs broader definition of soft power and analyzes all non-military tools used by China in Asia Pacific region.

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The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: A Watershed of Power Transition between China and the United States in the Asia Pacific?

Reconstructing China’s Participation in the Global Order ◽

10.1163/9789004355712_012 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 226-248

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

The United States ◽

Asia Pacific ◽

Infrastructure Investment ◽

Power Transition ◽

Investment Bank ◽

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

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China's Economic Diplomacy: Focusing on the Asia-Pacific Region

China Quarterly of International Strategic Studies ◽

10.1142/s2377740015500050 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 01 (01) ◽

pp. 85-104 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Daojiong Zha

Keyword(s):

Free Trade ◽

Silk Road ◽

Asia Pacific ◽

Pacific Region ◽

Asia Pacific Region ◽

Dream Vision ◽

Investment Bank ◽

Economic Diplomacy ◽

Chinese Leadership ◽

Investment Treaty

Of all the major activities and initiatives by the fifth-generation Chinese leadership, formally inaugurated in 2012, those relating to the Asia-Pacific region are the most noteworthy. The past two years witnessed the Chinese leadership enunciating a "Chinese Dream" vision for the nation and offering to share the prospects of prosperity and stability with the entire Asia-Pacific region and beyond. The leadership also adopted a "new normal" mode, aimed at stabilizing domestic economic growth and improving its quality. By way of establishing and expanding free trade zones, China demonstrates its commitment to liberalization. The spate of free trade agreements concluded with U.S. security allies, in addition to a commitment to expedite conclusion of a bilateral investment treaty with the U.S., points to China's separation of rules-based trade/investment management from concerns about geostrategic denial. Chinese initiation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and integration with economies along a "Silk Road Economic Belt" and a "Twenty-first-Century Maritime Silk Road" are bold yet challenging. At the same time, other Chinese economic diplomacy initiatives have yet to win broad-based support. Nevertheless, in its totality, China is not seeking to rewrite established rules of world economic governance.

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