The surge of nations agreeing to participate in China's new development bank — the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank — marks a stunning success for Beijing, which has overcome U.S. opposition and arm-twisting to lure key American allies.
Washington has been at its petulant worst, with unnamed officials accusing London of "constant accommodation," implying parallels with former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy toward Hitler that obviously ended in disaster. These anonymous sources also expressed dismay that the U.K. and fellow EU nations were opportunistically jumping on board because greed trumped principle. Shocking stuff!
And with, India, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on board, the U.S. has managed to isolate itself. Who would have thought that these uppity ingrates would pursue their own economic interests rather than join Washington's altruistic crusade to save Asia from Chinese-built infrastructure that is, according to African recipients, shoddy and crumbling? Emphasizing that angle might be a better ploy, but the U.S. has harped on about transparency and governance in its crusade against China's initiative to institutionalize its growing economic penetration of the region.