Jim Zarroli National Public Radio, Full story from National Public Radio, 4/16/15
China says 57 countries have signed on as charter members of the new China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. They include some of the United States’ closest allies, which added their names despite pressure from the White House not to join…the AIIB is being seen by some as a sign of diminished U.S. influence in the financial system…”We’re contemplating a major institution in which the United States has no role, that the United States made substantial efforts to stop — and failed,” former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers says….He says the creation of the AIIB will undermine the leadership role the U.S. has long enjoyed in global finance. And he sees it as something of a self-inflicted wound by the U.S. Summers says China acted in part because Congress refused to approve governance reforms that would have given Beijing more power at the IMF.
Harvard economist Ken Rogoff…says it is a rising power, it’s natural for China to seek a bigger leadership role in the world. The AIIB could be a way to do so in a more constructive manner. He says the United States probably should have welcomed China’s move early on. Its failure to block the new bank has only underscored China’s growing financial might.”