China, Japan Tried to Keep Each Other in Check at ADB Meeting

The 50th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) kicked off in Yokohama, Japan on May 5. There, South Korea, Japan and China raised their voices in favor of free trade and against trade protectionism advocated by the United States. At the same time, a war of nerves was witnessed between the ADB led by Japan and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) led by China.

It is quite rare that the three East Asian countries advocated free trade and clarified their opposition to the United States in one voice regarding matters related to trade. In the morning of the first day of the meeting, the financial ministers and central bank governors of the three countries released a joint statement that they are opposed to any form of trade protectionism. At the G20 meeting in Washington D.C. that took place two weeks ago, they could not articulate the idea due to opposition from the U.S.

In the meantime, Japan and China showed different stances as far as regionalism and multilateralism are concerned. The ADB, which is led by Japan as mentioned above, is an organization in pursuit of open regionalism. Few high-ranking Chinese officials participated in the 50th annual meeting of the ADB. In the meeting of the three countries that preceded the annual meeting, the vice minister of finance and the deputy head of the International Department of the People's Bank of China participated from China whereas South Korean and Japanese finance ministers and central bank governors themselves attended the same meeting. The same was repeated in the 49th annual meeting, too.

Japan is wary of the AIIB’s expansion of influence as well. Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso suggested a currency swap of four trillion yen to the ASEAN during the conference in this context. In fact, the three East Asian countries and the 10 member countries of the ASEAN already have this type of agreement in the form of the Chiang Mai Initiative, in which China, Japan, South Korea and the ASEAN represent 32%, 32%, 16% and 20%, respectively.