After being rebuked by the US for its "constant accommodation" of China, the UK's "application to join the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank" has received a cautious welcome by Beijing. But other voices on the mainland were less than thrilled.

China said it would seek the opinions of other founding countries before formally allowing Britain to become a "prospective founding member" of the $50bn AIIB, a new China-led financial institution that could rival the World Bank, by the end of March "if all goes well", writes Jamil Anderlini in Beijing.

But the decision was not universally welcomed in the country, with some influential voices pouring scorn on a country still widely regarded as second only to Japan among the colonial powers that "humiliated" China in the 19th and early 20th century.

"At first this sounds like it gives us a lot of 'face' but actually the sun has set on the [British] empire and in international organizations [the UK] is really just a s**t-stirrer and America's thug for hire," Gao Cheng, an associate researcher at the National Institute of International Strategy in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top government think-tank, wrote on her public microblog account.

"When it really counts [the UK] is pragmatic. Just look at the Ukraine situation, [the UK] is not following [American] meddling but just stays silent and makes money."

Britain may also come in for criticism from some other European countries, several of which were poised to join the AIIB in October last year but decided not to because of US opposition and signals that the UK and other countries would not sign up.

The Obama administration's rare rebuke of one of the US's closest allies came as Britain prepared to announce that it will become a founding member of the bank, making it the first country in the G7 group of leading economies to join an institution launched by China last October.

在美国批评英国“不断迁就”中国后，英国“加入中国提议的亚洲基础设施投资银行(Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank，简称亚投行)的申请”受到中国方面的谨慎欢迎。但中国一些评论人士则并不那么兴奋。

中国表示，“如果一切顺利”，在3月底正式允许英国成为亚投行“潜在创始成员国”之前，将征求其他创始成员国的意见。亚投行注册资本为500亿美元，是由中国领导的一家新的金融机构，可能与世界银行(World Bank)抗衡。

但这一决定并未在中国受到一致欢迎，一些有影响力的人士仍对英国语带讥讽。在很多中国人眼中，在19世纪和20世纪初“羞辱”中国的殖民列强中，英国仅次于日本。

中国社科院(Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)亚太与全球战略研究院(National Institute of International Strategy)副研究员高程在她的微博上写道：“听上去很有面子，可日已落帝国在国际组织里有时真心是搅屎棍和美国打手角色啊。”

“关键时候（英国）还算务实，如今看看乌克兰局势，（英国）就不怎么跟着（美国）掺和闷声发财去了。”

英国可能还会受到其他欧洲国家的批评。去年10月，其中一些欧洲国家欲加入亚投行，但由于美国的反对，再加上当时有迹象表明英国和其他国家不会加入，它们最后决定不加入。

在英国预备宣布成为亚投行创始成员国时，奥巴马政府罕见地指责了这个美国最亲密的盟友之一。如果顺利，英国将成为首个加入亚投行的七国集团(G7)成员国。亚投行由中国在去年10月提议创建的。

译者/梁艳裳