Extent of Silk Route/Silk Road. Red is land route and the blue is the sea/water route. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is a fascinating storyand a STRONGLY RECOMMENDED READ from China’s People’s Daily Online. Check it out!
Xi’s speech on China-Central Asia ties catches global attention – People’s Daily Online.
There are clearly strategic and economic advantages from this latest policy initiative from China. Reviving the ancient Silk Road with a modern Silk Road seems to have captured the attention of China specialists around the World. I would expect the new Silk Road to carry mineral resources back to China.
Let me turn this to an open question on Afghanistan:
Will China’s policy of bearing gifts to Afghanistan be more successful than both Russian and US policy?
Any thoughts?
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The answer to Dr Alf’s question has to be a resounding “yes”; China’,s assistance to rebuild Afghanistan has given them access to $6 trillion USD in mineral wealth in just copper and lithium alone and 350,000 Chinese mine-workers who would otherwise have to be found jobs at home or left without work(there have been many riots about huge differences and corruption such as the Wukan riots in 2012 where the local people forced a change in local Communist Party leadership).
This allows China to expand her economy without creating too many inflationary pressures, whilst building footholds and learning more about countries around the world.
Within each of these communities of Chinese, there is always a Communist Party apparachik watching and listening to the expatriates and noting down what he and she sees and hears whilst they live and work in that country.
The excess between the costs of doing the mining, propping up the US dollar and rebuilding Afghanistan’s infrastructure, go back to China and then in turn get invested in Western businesses either by outright acquisition or a slow but steady buildup in shareholding. The businesses they acquire often have manufacturing or other divisions outsourced or relocated to China, which creates more employment back home, more tax revenues for the Government and thus more money with which to buy land in other countries.
Parcels of land as big as Switzerland are being bought in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.Nicaragua is to get a new canal to rival the Panama Canal and it will be 100% owned by the People’s Liberation Army through the Chinese Government.
Last week, the Chinese injected billions into Kenya to help it bring Vision 2030, the Kenyan Governments plan to become a first world country, into reality.This is connected to the discovery of massive coal reserves, rare earth deposits and oil.
THE WEST
The West has gained 15 secret bases in Afghanistan which are not so secret because the Russians know where they are.
They have some access to Afghanistan,s mineral wealth and other resources but through XE are effectively going to have to keep troops there forever as has happened in Iraq already where the Americans and ourselves have long since withdrawn our troops but left behind “security contractors” who work for private mercenary companies composed of ex special forces people and who are not covered by any military code or the Geneva Convention.
The cost to the West in blood, treasure and money has not been insignificant and as we saw with the House of Commons vote and the difficulty President Obama is having over Syria there is a bigger cost, namely the mistrust and loathing of a majority of the people.
People do not want Wars on Terror that kill their sons, send others home maimed and mentally scarred.They do not want the cost of these operations when they are told that there is no money and worse still for these Western Governments, politicians become despised and disliked which then makes it hard for action to be taken on real issues when, occasionally the politicians are speaking the truth.
The Chinese Government is not immune from this but they are creating 25 million new jobs a year and even though these are not necessarily jobs that we would want,they are nevertheless raising living standards for people who had previously lived in even more grinding rural poverty.
The very long game that the Chinese Government is playing is one that they are winning at the West,s expense and is summed up in one of their statements which said “As people become more prosperous we will become more popular”.