Zachary Keck — Why the US Is Trying to Squash China's New Development Bank

…It is certainly true that, throughout most of the post-Cold War era, there has been a widespread, bipartisan consensus in Washington that China’s rise is a good thing for the U.S. because it would allow Beijing to relieve the U.S. of some of the burden of upholding the global order. It is also true that as China continued to rise, the U.S. grew increasingly vocal in calling on Beijing to do just that. 

All of this was premised, however, on the belief that China would use its power to reinforce the existing global order, and not seek to create its own order. Indeed, Western analysts who dissented from the general consensus did so on the grounds that China, like rising powers before it, would use its newfound power to reshape the global order — not to reinforce the existing one. The pro-China camp in Washington responded to these criticisms by contending that China would not challenge the existing order because it had served Beijing so well during its rise. Neither side, however, disputed that China attempting to reshape the global order would be a bad thing for the U.S. The only disagreement was over whether China would use its power to support the existing system, as most in in the U.S. foreign policy community argued, or to overturn the existing order, as critics of the conventional wisdom maintained. 

In recent years, of course, the optimism in Washington over China’s rise has rapidly diminished. The reason for this is because China’s actions — particularly in the South and East China Sea, but also through initiatives like the AIIB — have made it increasingly difficult to argue that China will continue to support the existing order even as its power grows. After all, if China is already challenging the U.S.-led order in Asia, then why would China begin supporting the status quo as it becomes even more powerful? Thus, seemingly overnight, the conventional wisdom in Washington changed from viewing China’s rise as a boon to the U.S. to viewing it as a major threat to America and the existing order. However, the key point is that the U.S. foreign policy community was always opposed to China or any other nation trying to upend the regional order in Asia, and there was never any reason to think the U.S. wouldn’t be opposed to initiatives that do just that, such as the AIIB. 

It’s worth noting that none of this seems to have been lost on China. Indeed, despite frequent U.S. reassurances, China has been unwavering in its belief that the U.S. is seeking to contain it….

The next great power struggle in the Great Game?
 
The Diplomat
Why the US Is Trying to Squash China's New Development Bank

Zachary Keck