Former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday rebuked US lawmakers for allowing China to steal a march with a new Asian bank that threatens to upend Washington''s oversight of the world economic order. Speaking in Hong Kong, Bernanke also echoed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in saying China''s currency was "much better aligned" today, after Western criticism that Beijing cheats in global trade by distorting the yuan''s exchange rate.
With the launch of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and its plans to gradually roll out the yuan as an international currency, China is flexing its economic muscles to the consternation of some US critics. But, Bernanke said, the US Congress only had itself to blame after refusing to ratify reforms agreed in 2010 that would have given greater clout to China and other emerging powers in the IMF.