Australian aid to the Pacific has been criticised for not focusing enough on infrastructure. But rising Chinese influence is bringing a shift of priorities.
President-elect Donald Trump’s avowed opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership will work in China’s favour.
Jason Lee/Reuters
If Beijing can bring its neighbours to accept its regional leadership, China would have successfully achieved a dramatic reduction of US influence.
Major development banks are funding logging, mining and infrastructure projects that are having enormous impacts on nature. Here, forests are being razed along a newly constructed road in central Amazonia.
William Laurance
Big new investors such as the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank are key players in a worldwide infrastructure, and that could be bad news for the environment.
Australia may be a little late to the party, but the it still has a lot to win as it negotiates its position in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Even for a government that has recently made an artform of policy backflips, the Abbott government’s belated, but seemingly inevitable decision to join China’s proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment…
Treasurer Joe Hockey makes the opening remarks at the Australia-China Business Council.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Treasurer Joe Hockey has indicated the government is preparing to announce Australia will enter negotiations to join China’s infrastructure bank.
In the end, Tony Abbott – pictured with Xi Jinping and mining magnate Andrew Forrest – can’t ignore the economic consequences of snubbing China’s investment bank.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The US gravely miscalculated in trying to get China to accept the existing global order. Forced to make a choice, America’s closest allies are joining the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Since the founding members signed on to the the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in China last October, more Western powers have agreed to join.
Takaki Yajima/EPA/AAP
It makes sense for Australia to join Britain and New Zealand in the newly created AIIB, but it’s unlikely we will have any significant influence over the organisation.
Britain’s decision to join China’s new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is a revealing example of one of the key realities of the new international order. Not only are geopolitics and geoeconomics…
A show of force. Will China assert itself?
Sam Ilić
Whether you fear or welcome a challenge to the world’s existing power structure, the main focus of attention is on when China will begin to translate its increasing influence into genuine global leadership…
China recently launched its US$50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Beijing.
AAP
The G20 infrastructure agenda cites an OECD prediction the global infrastructure gap will be worth US$70 trillion by 2030. It is predicting this gap will grow. Yet it’s difficult to assess the credibility…
Tony Abbott is meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this week.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Forget shirt-fronting Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s most challenging task this week will be breaking an uncomfortable silence with Chinese President Xi Jinping. And he…
Treasurer Joe Hockey wants Australia to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
EPA/DREW ANGERER
Senior cabinet ministers are believed to be divided over whether Australia should sign up to an internationally funded infrastructure development bank that China is set to launch next month. Treasurer…