China is aggressively expanding plans to establish a new global financial institution to rival the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, which Beijing fears are too influenced by the US and its allies.
In meetings with other countries in recent weeks, Beijing has proposed doubling the size of registered capital for the proposed bank from an earlier $50bn to $100bn, according to two people close to the matter.
So far, 22 countries across the region, including several wealthy states in the Middle East – which China refers to as “West Asia” – have shown interest in the multilateral lender, which would be known as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. It would initially focus on building a new version of the “silk road”, the ancient trade route that once connected Europe to China.