The Obama administration has shown a lack of historic understanding concerning its policy towards China’s proposal to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The White House must understand that its policy lacks judgment when former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in unladylike language, refers to it as “we screwed it up.” The kindest remark she might have made is that the White House misread the situation. The president now faces a self-inflicted predicament of possible strained relations with an increasing number of major countries, allies that have defied American pressure and decided to join the AIIB. The planned establishment of the AIIB is a new factor in the challenge by China and other powers to American leadership in global financial institutions, and what some consider excessive dominance as well as for leadership of the world economy. The AIIB is an obvious rival to the World Bank that the IMF created, largely by the...(Read Full Article)