US Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew on Tuesday said that Washington was “ready to welcome” the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), easing toward the new development institution after the US expressed early concerns.
Lew said in a San Francisco speech just after a trip to Beijing that the US would embrace any new international development bank providing it “complements” existing institutions like the World Bank and the IMF.
He also stressed that new institutions needed to “share the international community’s strong commitment to genuine multilateral governance and decisionmaking, and ever-improving lending standards and safeguards,” according to his prepared speech.
China and 20 other countries signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the Beijing-based bank in October last year.
Washington, worried about a China-dominated AIIB cutting into the work of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank at first sought to persuade its allies to hold off from joining the new bank.
However, in recent weeks most European powers and other leading economies have signed on to the new institution, guaranteeing it a strong capital base and isolating the US’ position.
That has left Washington appearing isolated in not wholeheartedly welcoming Beijing’s creation.
Speaking at the northern California chapter of the Asia Society, Lew said he was encouraged that Chinese leaders “made clear that they aspire to meet high standards and welcome partnership.”
“Our consistent focus on standards has already had an impact and, as lending begins, the test will be the character of the projects funded and their impact on the people and countries they serve,” Lew said.
If the AIIB works with existing institutions to finance infrastructure projects around Asia, Lew said, it “will help demonstrate a commitment to the highest standards of governance, environmental and social safeguards, and debt-sustainability.”
Lew still did not let on if the US would join the AIIB.
He made clear Washington still supports the mission of the World Bank, the IMF and other older regional development banks, and is concerned about how Beijing will proceed with a new institution poised somewhat as a rival to those.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS