Strait of Malacca (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dr Alf is right. This article about the proposed Kra Isthmus canal in Thailand is of great interest and this proposed canal and the one now being worked on by the Chinese in Nicaragua are of great strategic importance to them and have resulted from what they see as Western attempts to contain them militarily and impede their economic progress. In their position, it is quite obvious that India and America could bottle up their shipping in the Straits of Malacca, in the event of war or crisis and the Indian Government has said as much publicly. This is one of the reasons that China built a naval base in Sri Lanka having helped the government of that country put an end to the 30 year civil war with the Tamil Tigers. Similarly the Chinese bought a Greek island after the last bailout of the Greek Government by Germany and the IMF but have so far built nothing on it.
Clearly, there will be environmental consequences if this Kra Isthmus canal gets built and even more if there are more shipping movements as a result of increased world trade and greater numbers of people in the world.
China is not going to be contained because they think much further ahead than our Western leaders and because not a day passes without them buying up yet another Western company or using their 4 million or so cyber warriors to hack into the computers of Western businesses and Governments.
With each corporate acquisition the need to hack disappears because all the data in that company and its computers gets acquired and with any “Snoopers Charter” involving mass surveillance it is then possible to hack the surveillance computer and gain full insight into what our Western Governments and companies are doing and thinking.
Our Western leaders need as the “Donald” puts it so well, to be a lot smarter, think ahead a lot further and negotiate a lot better because from where I sit hardly any of them, including President Obama, are up to the task.
Secondly, we need to find areas where we can co-operate to our mutual benefit whenever possible as a way to slowly build an element of trust which at the moment is lacking.
So short of stopping the building of this new canal by sabotage or force it is going to get built whether we in the West like it or not.
We have expertise in environmental cleanup which we could share in order to bring benefits to the world as a whole.
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