US opposition to AIIB ‘strategic mistake’, says senior Trump adviser
James Woolsey says new administration expected give ‘much warmer’ response to China’s ‘One Road’ initiative
A top adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump has lashed out at the Obama administration’s opposition to China’s economic diplomacy, especially the decision to stay away from
the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
In an opinion piece in the South China Morning Post on Friday, James Woolsey, a senior adviser to Trump on national security and intelligence, called Washington’s spurning of the China-led multilateral lender “a strategic mistake” and expected a “much warmer” response from Trump to President Xi Jinping’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
The United States and Japan are the only two G7 countries that have not signed up to be AIIB members, a move viewed by Beijing as a sign of Washington’s mistrust of the Chinese government and its ambition to exert bigger regional influence.
Analysts said that if Trump backed US membership of the AIIB and endorsed China’s efforts to revive trade routes along the ancient Silk Road, it would be a big sign of goodwill from Washington to Beijing to pave the way for future agreements.
Wang Huiyao, a director at the Centre for China and Globalisation, a think tank in Beijing, said: “China can invite the United States to join the AIIB after Trump’s inauguration.”