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.