2014 ends on positive note for US, China

Silk Road

While both US and Chinese officials have toned down confrontational rhetoric, many experts have expressed disappointment that that the US has failed to show support to positive roles played by China on the regional and global stage.

Senior US officials raised doubts about the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) proposed by China, while World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and many countries in the region openly welcomed the multilateral bank that seeks to finance infrastructure development in the Asia-Pacific region.

Many in the US have also seen China's Silk Road initiatives, both the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, as aiming to expand China's geopolitical clout rather than serving as a platform for economic connectivity in the region as China stated.

China announced on Nov 8 that it will contribute $40 billion to a Silk Road fund for projects that facilitate connectivity along the belt and road.

Douglas Paal, vice-president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the Obama administration made a mistake trying to encourage US friends and allies not to be part of the AIIB.

Paal dismissed the doubt expressed by US officials regarding the governance and transparency of AIIB, saying that Chinese Vice-Minister of Finance Zhu Guangyao has given a lot of assurances.

To Paal, a former vice-chairman at JPMorgan Chase International, the AIIB "has a lot of potential" and the Silk Road "makes a lot of sense".

"It's good for the Central Asians. They need trade routes, and they need places to employ their young people," he said.

Paal said the US should work with China on the Silk Road. "That's a shortfall of American imagination," he said.

Former US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman also expressed his disappointment at the Obama administration's attitude on AIIB in a Dec 18 talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.