When China announced in 2013 that it would create the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to lend to developing countries in the region, a common belief held that this marked another sad stage in the slow death of multilateral co-operation.

2013年中国宣布将发起设立“亚洲基础设施投资银行”(Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank，简称：亚投行)，专门向该地区的发展中国家发放贷款。当时，人们普遍认为，多边合作慢慢走向死亡的过程令人遗憾地进入了一个新阶段。

Rather than channel its vast foreign exchange reserves through global agencies like the World Bank, the argument went, China was setting up its own development bank which it could dominate and in which other creditor countries could participate only on terms in effect set by Beijing.

根据这种观点，中国不愿通过世界银行(World Bank)等国际机构把自己庞大的外汇储备投放出去，而是要设立一家自己可以主导的开发银行，其他债权国只有接受实际上由北京方面制定的条款才能参与。

With this week’s news that the AIIB will undertake a joint loan with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), this pessimistic scenario looks mercifully less likely. There is a strong argument for seeing the AIIB’s creation as a move by China towards embracing international co-operation, not rejecting it.

但在本周传出亚投行将与亚洲开发银行(ADB)开展一项联合贷款的消息之后，上述的悲观情景似乎不太可能出现了。这里存在一个强有力的理由，可以据此认为亚投行的成立标志着中国朝着拥抱、而不是拒绝国际合作的方向迈出了一步。

By the time Beijing announced the AIIB, it had already been hurtling rapidly away from multilateralism in the field of development finance for more than a decade. Starting in the early 2000s, China began to deploy its huge currency reserves to lend bilaterally to developing countries, often for infrastructure projects in Africa, through agencies such as the China Development Bank and the China ExIm Bank.

在宣布成立亚投行消息之前，中国在开发融资领域与多边主义背道而驰已有十多年了。中国从本世纪初开始通过中国国家开发银行(CDB)和中国进出口银行(China ExIm Bank)等机构，将巨额外汇储备用于向发展中国家提供双边贷款，通常是投向非洲的基础设施项目。

Frequently, these loans were tied to mercantile interests of Chinese companies and political backing for Beijing’s foreign policy goals from the recipient governments. They were, however, largely free of the human rights and environmental standards that have helped to make World Bank loans increasingly cumbersome to take out. This featherlight-touch approach proved a highly popular feature. By 2010, Chinese development lending had exceeded that of the World Bank.

这些贷款项目往往与中国企业的商业利益有关，也与接收国政府对中国外交政策目标的政治支持脱不开干系。然而，这些项目基本不受人权和环境标准的限制，而这些标准是使世行越来越不容易发放贷款的因素之一。中国这种轻柔的接触方式被证实是极受欢迎的。到2010年，中国发放的开发性贷款的规模已经超过了世行。

However, a string of projects failing to work out, including a big loan to Ghana to develop its nascent oil industry, encouraged China to supplement its bilateral lending with a plurilateral project in the form of the AIIB. The US might not have liked it, and unwisely tried to discourage other governments such as the UK from joining the new bank, but creating a new international institution, even at the cost of bypassing the existing ones, was on balance a positive development.

然而，一系列项目未能实施，其中包括向加纳发放的一笔用于发展其新兴的石油产业的大额贷款，这促使中方决定以亚投行的形式开展诸边项目，作为双边贷款的补充。美国或许不喜欢亚投行，也曾不明智地试图阻止英国等其他国家加入亚投行，但创建一家新的国际机构——即使以绕过现有机构为代价——总的来说是一个积极进展。

Assuming it is confirmed and goes ahead, the loan with the Asian Development Bank is important both symbolically and in practice. The ADB, which has been around since 1966, has long been seen as a Japanese fiefdom, with Tokyo in effect appointing its head and Washington giving it support. Neither the US nor Japan has joined the AIIB. For Beijing in effect to co-operate with one of its main foreign policy rivals in the region suggests it is signalling that the AIIB is not simply intended to project Chinese interests.

假定得到证实并向前推进，与亚开行的联合贷款将具有重要的象征和实际意义。创立于1966年的亚开行，长期以来被视为日本的势力范围，实质上由日本任命行长，并得到美国支持。美国或日本都没有加入亚投行。通过与域内的一个主要外交政策对手进行合作，中国正在发出一个信号：亚投行的存在并非单纯为了投射中国的利益。

Moreover, the ADB, somewhat like the World Bank, has rules on social and environmental protection which it says will apply to the joint project: thus it will allow China, at least partly, to submit itself to global norms of development lending.

此外，亚开行多多少少像世行一样，拥有社会和环保方面的规则。亚开行声称，这些规则将适用于与亚投行的联合贷款项目。这将使中国——起码在一定程度上——能够按照开发性贷款的国际标准行事。

These are early days for the AIIB, which has still to demonstrate which rules will constrain the bulk of its activities. It is, however, all to the good that it is sending out signals in the direction of international co-operation.

亚投行处于早期阶段，它必须向外界展示其大部分行动将遵守哪些规则。不过，它现在发出自己正朝着国际合作的方向迈进的信号无疑是大好事。

The initial hand-wringing, particularly in Washington, over the creation of the AIIB has been excessive. China will continue to lend bilaterally on a huge scale, and the new bank should be regarded as a pilot project rather than a dominant new model. By showing respect to the existing development agencies, Beijing is signalling that the AIIB is not simply the extension of Chinese influence by other means.

亚投行创立之初引发了过度的焦虑，尤其是在华盛顿。中国将继续大规模地发放双边贷款，这家新银行应被视为一个试点项目，而不是一种主导性的新模式。北京方面向现有开发银行表现出尊重，从而发出这样的信号：中国设立亚投行并不只是要通过其他方式扩大自身影响力。