BEIJING, March 31-- The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) initiated by China is widely recognized as an important instrument for win-win cooperation in Asia, but unfortunately some Western media have ignored basic facts to portray the bank as a sinister invention.

The burgeoning institution attracted intensive media attention in mid-March after Britain announced its intention to join as a founding member, despite questioning by Washington whether the China-led bank will have sufficient standards of governance and environmental and social safeguards.

As of March 31, the deadline for countries to apply for founding-member status, over 40 countries have declared their interest, with a noteworthy presence of many U.S. allies from both Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

However, seeing the upbeat mood surrounding the AIIB, some Western media have unleashed a fresh round of China-demonizing reports, alleging that the AIIB is a vehicle for China to assert dominance in Asia and even beyond.

As in similar cases, such reports hyped the so-called "China threat" without giving adequate supporting details and were very much based on theories of those who always seek to cast China in negative light.

Browsing through China-related reports by these media outlets offers a glimpse of the routine absurd prejudice against China: On the one hand, they bombard China for purported reluctance to shoulder global responsibilities and on the other, they play up imminent "China threat" if China does make a solid move to address certain global challenges.

By initiating the AIIB, China intends to break Asia's infrastructure bottleneck by tapping into the country's huge amount of foreign reserves.

By inviting more countries to join the initiative, China aims to pool resources for the sake of Asia's development and meanwhile offer these partners a better chance to grow with Asia in the long run.

As a matter of fact, the China-proposed development bank is a perfect example to showcase China's desire to play a bigger role in shouldering global responsibilities.

Those accusing China of shirking its global responsibilities should know that it is only fair for China to shoulder its due share that is within the country's capability and is compatible with its status in various aspects.

Meanwhile, every time they predict that an endeavor by China will bring tangible changes to the existing order, they should also remember to ponder whether the old system is still sufficient.