U.S. Failure to Stop China Bank Unmasks World Finance Fight
Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, and representatives of countries ready to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank line up for a group photo at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Photograph: Kyodo via AP ImagesThe Obama administration’s vain attempt to prevent allies from joining China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is feeding a growing perception that U.S. influence in Asia is declining and America is losing its 70-year grip on global economic institutions.
“This past month may be remembered as the moment the United States lost its role as the underwriter of the global economic system,” former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers wrote in an April 5 column in which he also blamed Congress for domestic politicking that has rendered the U.S. “increasingly dysfunctional.”