UK Joins China World Bank Competitor, Australia Cautious

UK support for China-backed Asia bank prompts US concern

The UK is the first big Western economy to apply for membership of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The AIIB will fund Asian energy, transport and infrastructure projects.

However, the US has raised questions over the bank's commitment to international standards on governance.

Australia is leaning toward the U.S. position, not surprising since they live in China's neighborhood. Fits with that Luttwak described in The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy

From the review at Handle's Haus:

VII. The Emerging Anti-China Coalition

Australia:
Australia, member of the Anglosphone Five Eyes Alliance and an extremely close security partner of the United States, is the main Western power to be located in East Asia’s geo-economic sphere. It is primarily interested in keeping the United States (whose competence they now question but capability they require) pivoted to the Asian theater and building a regional, multilateral coalition o security cooperation capable of containing a rising China.

It has been the main nation to strongly resist China’s preference of dealing bilaterally with other, smaller, less powerful nations one at a time – where it tries to leverage its huge advantage in size – and instead Australia insists that any Chinese negotiation with any nation in the region occur on as multilateral a basis as possible. It has, over recent years, been largely successful in this effort