Will Asian economic integration finally take root under China’s infrastructure bank AIIB?

Calls for regional economic integration in Asia are not new but Xi Jinping’s latest push for AIIB to take the lead may be falling on more fertile ground, given US withdrawals from global institutions and a fading dollar

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China’s President Xi Jinping has called upon the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to live up to expectations. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 11:00pm, 9 Aug 2020Updated: 4:05am, 10 Aug 2020

President Xi Jinping has called on the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to “push for regional economic integration” in Asia. It is a worthy sentiment (or pious hope), and one voiced before by other Asian leaders, but it could be an idea whose time has come.

That the Chinese leader is suggesting the AIIB play a lead role in pressing for regional integration seems significant. With slightly over 100 member countries (in Asia, Africa and beyond) the bank could serve to solidify and institutionalise China's regional presence.

Xi’s call, made during the AIIB’s recent fifth annual meeting in Beijing, comes as the world is fracturing into rival geopolitical blocs, global trade is shrinking, nationalism rising, multilateralism falling out of favour and attitudes generally hardening.

Hardly an auspicious moment, it might seem, to urge for regional integration, and yet there is a paradoxical logic behind Xi’s call. The impetus towards regional integration was not so strong in past calls for such unity but things are changing dramatically.

Pushes for regional economic integration in Asia – from Malaysia and Japan, for example – were made when the United States was more deeply involved in Asian trade and Washington’s commitment to maintaining security alliances appeared to be ironclad.

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