China’s motivation behind the AIIB proposal is best explained in the context of its ‘Silk Road
economic belt’ and ‘21st century maritime Silk Road’ (together, ‘one belt, one road’) initiatives.
Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed a Silk Road economic belt on a visit to Kazakhstan in
September 2013, and a 21st century maritime Silk Road in Indonesia the following month,
simultaneously with the AIIB proposal. In his capacity as chair of China’s leading economic policy
group,
2 Xi Jinping has explicitly instructed policymakers that the “primary task” of the AIIB is to
provide capital for these initiatives (Xinhua 2015a). In addition to the AIIB, China has created a new
$40 billion ‘Silk Road fund’ (Xinhua 2014b) and injected a further $31 billion in China’s policy banks
to support the initiative (Zhang 2015)