CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Baghdasaryan, Bella |
|---|---|
| Title | The Establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: A Step Towards More Responsible China or a Symbolic Gesture? |
| Summary | According to President Xi Jinping, in order to achieve the great rejuvenation of Chinese nation, China should move closer “to center stage and make greater contributions to mankind” (Phillips 2017). China’s “new era” has been characterized with more active involvement in several fields, however, this thesis will focus on the foreign development promotion. China as a “re-emerged” development partner has faced several critiques from the traditional Bretton Woods institutions. The main concerns of the West were connected with China's non-willingness to cooperate, low environmental standards, unconditional and non-transparent nature of their development assistance. These critiques highlight the broader conflict between China and the United States over China's disinclination to become a responsible stakeholder of the international system and provide global public goods. After its establishment, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) envoked the idea of China moving towards more responsible behavior in its official narrative. There is an extensive discussion and conjecture on China becoming a more responsible stakeholder, however, little of it is research based . This thesis will fill in this gap and evaluate whether the establishment of the AIIB is an indication of China’s move towards responsible international behavior. The study argues that China’s hypothetical switch towards more responsible behavior should have had an impact on Chinese policy banks, because these are the main providers of China’s financial assistance. The study will compare the official narrative and working strategies of the AIIB and policy banks of China. The main dimensions in which these institutions will be compared are environmental sustainability of the implemented projects, collaboration with Western donors and transparency of financial flows. This thesis argues that the establishment of the AIIB followed the desire to create an image of a responsible raising power and strengthen Chinese soft power; however, that image does not indicate that China has committed itself to follow norms of the international donor community. Evidence for this is the Chinese policy banks continued operation under their previous working styles. The thesis provides an evidence in support that the AIIB is following its official narrative and demonstrates working strategies similar to Western Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), while the policy banks of China are not moving towards more responsible behavior. This dual approach of using new institutions to align themselves with international norms while continuing activities that deviate from there are a hallmark of Chinese international involvement in the 21st century. Even though there have been essential improvements concerning environmental standards of domestic loans, but overseas lending is still less green, in addition non-transparent working strategies of the policy banks make China’s switch towards becoming a more responsible stakeholder quite debatable. |
| Supervisor | Daniel Large |
| Department | School of Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/baghdasaryan_bella.pdf |
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