Democratic titans say Obama ‘screwed up’ and gave rise to China’s new bank

U.S. efforts to head off a new China-sponsored development bank for the booming Asia region ended in abject failure this week as organizers announced nearly four dozen countries — including some of America’s closest Asian and European allies — have applied to membership, amid growing criticism of how the Obama administration handled the entire episode.

The Chinese head of the secretariat of the proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) told an organizing conference meeting in Kazakhstan this week that 46 countries have applied to join the AIIB, including Britain, Germany,...