In October 2013, on his way to the APEC meeting in Bali, President Xi Jinping announced China’s new investment bank proposal. It was a bold multilateral initiative to upgrade Asia’s infrastructure. Everyone was invited to join. It was a leaf straight out of America’s own playbook, and Washington did not like it. The Obama administration let it be known that it did not approve the Chinese initiative, and South Korea, Japan and Australia promptly fell into line.
