AIIB to help West grasp China's ideals

China's President Xi Jinping (4th R) meets with the guests at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) launch ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in this October 24, 2014 file photograph. [Photo/Agencies]

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is proving to be an international relations milestone. It is also helping rewrite the mechanism of change in the world order.

The form and reform of the modern world order have not been able to remove the Thucydides Trap: hegemonic powers suppressing opponents and the opponents challenging the dominant status of the hegemonic powers, eventually leading to war. And the wars have resulted in the collapse and recombination of the then existing world order. The Westphalian, Vienna and United Nations systems, as well as the US hegemony, all have been formed by typical mutations of systems that resulted in a new combination after the destruction of the then prevailing orders, which ultimately led to the so-called world order that exists today following the West-centric recombination.

It is the mechanism of this world order that the AIIB is helping rewrite.

First, the China-led AIIB is an emerging force that comes from, respects and maintains the existing world order. Over the past three centuries, all the world orders have been the products of war, following the principle of "might is right". The rise of China is quite different from the way Westerners have been used to seeing the world. In this context, the AIIB can be regarded as one of the fruits of China's "peaceful rise".

Second, the establishment of the AIIB is the first international relations reform led by Asians. In modern times, some Asian countries such as Japan have attempted to participate and even play a prominent role in the world order. But they have followed the Western way of using wars to change the world order and ended up in failure. As such, Asian countries have never played a leading role in building a world order.

Contrary to popular belief, even the Asian Development Bank is not dominated by Japan, for the United States has been playing a manipulating role from the shadows. No wonder, the Republic of Korea said the AIIB is the first global financial institution that it has joined as a major founding member. What the ROK has said represents the dream of most Asian countries, including China.