China will indeed contribute the largest share of the funds to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), but the ratio of its contribution will decrease in future as more counties or regions join the bank.

The AIIB will be complementary to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) rather than a substitute for them, and will seek to improve the existing international financial system rather than overturning it, said Jin Liqun, secretary-general of the Multilateral Interim Secretariat for Establishing the AIIB.

Though China is the biggest shareholder, it will not regard itself as the 'boss' and will seek consensus with other participating countries as far as is possible.

The response to the launch of the AIIB has been overwhelmingly positive. It is likely to have 35 founding members by the end of March. The US is also changing its attitude to the AIIB, and expressing expectations that there will be cooperation between the AIIB and the World Bank.

China is the driving force behind the AIIB, the first massive public product it has launched in the international financial market. The bank is a financial tool which is based on Asia and will serve the world. Geopolitics is not a “zero sum game”, and China is pursuing cooperation and win-win. Those who label the AIIB as China’s Bretton Woods system have ulterior motives.

The AIIB is simply a supplementary source rather than the sole source of financing for Asian Infrastructure construction. The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are failing to meet the demand for funding of the region’s infrastructure construction. The AIIB has not been established to compete with the World Bank or the ADB but to cooperate with them. It is an investment bank and it is not driven by political calculations. Nor is it a strategic tool of the “one belt one road” initiative, which has its own “silk road foundation”. Anyone who lumps the AIIB with “one belt one road” is ignorant or ill-intentioned.

As the biggest contributor, the U.S. maintains tight control over the WB, whose president has always been American. Japan does the same with the ADB. China will never do any such thing. The AIIB is taking shape against a background of world economic integration. That is why the AIIB is attracting more and more countries to join.

This article was edited and translated from 《亚投行的“朋友圈”里没有“老大”》, source: The Beijing News, author: He Jingjun