"So long as China maintains its position as a key trading partner and source of large-scale investments...Beijing will maintain significant influence over its neighbors."
The past few months have been a strategic roll coaster for Asia. Earlier this year, Chinadealt a huge blow to the United States’ leadership in the region when it managed to enlist leading European economies as well as American allies in Asia as founding members of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which will be headquartered in Beijing. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers went so far as claiming that the AIIB episodepossibly marked“the moment the United States lost its role as the underwriter of the global economic system."