by N. Peter Kramer
The new Asian investment bank is a
clear answer of Beijing on the by the US dominated World Bank. Now in the
meantime also a number of European countries, including the 4 biggest EU
economies (Germany, UK, France and Italy) and Austria, the Netherlands and
Switzerland, have signed the Republic of China (ROC or Taiwan) comes in the
picture.
Taiwan is again the strongest of the Asian
Tigers. Its economic growth rate of 3.7% in 2014 put the country back at the
head of the group of four successful economies for the first time since 2000:
South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong recorded rates of 3.3%, 2.9% and 2.3%
respectively. Stunning economic figures compared with the poor performances of
EU countries. A conclusion could be that Taiwan cannot be absent in the group
of countries that signed for the AIIB.
However Taiwan finds itself in a delicate position.
On the one side Taiwan is not only a strong Asian economy and so a natural
partner of the AIIB, but it also has a good and still improving economic
relation with mainland China that took the initiative for the AIIB. On the
other hand there is Taiwan’s longstanding tie with the United States; a strong tie
that signified during many years a necessary protection against an at the time
aggressive mainland. And looking at Hong Kong and Tibet, it is understandable
that Taiwan don’t like to endanger its relation with the US. The ROC government’s decision-making process
to join the Asian investment bank is consequently prudent.
Regarding the US it is clear that the Obama
administration made a major miscalculation. When Xi Jinping, then the new
Chinese leader, first broached the idea of a new Asian development bank in a
public speech in 2013, Washington didn’t really pay attention to it. But as
Beijing systematically recruited longtime American allies to help fund and
oversee a new bank, it became clear that it was more than a public relation
stunt. It is a direct threat to the position of the by the US monopolised World
Bank, a position that already years and years led to serious complaints by Asian
and South-American leaders. Now with many including the main EU countries
joining China’s initiative despite pleas from Washington not to do so, it is a
defeat for President Obama, who a few years ago pledged to make Asia a ‘pivot’ in
American foreign policy…
