The trickle of non-Asian countries wishing to join the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has become a flood, the dam breached, somewhat ironically and over the US’ objections, by the UK, that one-time pioneer in China trade.

These developments parallel recent announcements by President Xi Jinping at the Boao Forum on the Belt and Road Initiative, an overarching plan which includes inter alia the previously discussed and more evocatively named Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

It is a hugely ambitious attempt to link the entire Eurasian continent with the hardware and software of trade and transportation.