China Encircles The Globe

I was most amused to read about Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao addressing the Greek Parliament on Saturday 2ndOctober 2010. Here is a picture of Premier Wen adressing the Greek Parliament in Athens.

I was amused because Greece is hailed as the Mother of Western Democracy. To justify their genocidal “War On Terror”, Hollywood even made a movie ‘300’ which almost had the Persians shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (they were dressed like muezzins) in the myth infused battle at Thermopylae. It was ‘East versus West’, ‘Democracy versus Osama bin Laden’ bla bla.

So here was Wen Jiabao, the Vicegerent of Mao Tse Tung’s Communist Victory in 1949, coming to save ‘Mother of Western Democracy’ Greece from bankruptcy. The Chinese have given an undertaking to buy up any amount of Bonds that the Greek Government may issue to save themselves.

"As Western investors head for the hills, it turns out that China is turning the Greece crisis into an opportunity for expansion," said someone.

The Chinese want a gateway into Europe," Theodoros Pangalos, Greece's deputy prime minister, said in an interview. "They are not like these Wall Street [expletive] pushing financial investments on paper. The Chinese deal in real things, in merchandise. And they will help the real economy in Greece."
 
The Chinese largesse is not a random act or opportunistic. China has been a ‘player’ in Greece for some time now. So the ‘any amount of Bonds’ may come with some prudent advice.

The Chinese deal for the Port of Piraeus began to come together in 2006, with the Chinese shipping and terminal operator Cosco taking transitional control of the main dock at Piraeus on Oct. 1, 2009.
 
They want to turn it into a major container port (like Rotterdam) serving the Mediterranean and North Africa. Chinese ships will sail in with huge amounts of Made In China products and sail back with raw materials and stuff for hungry Chinese factories. A neat arrangement. Here is a map of the area.

The Chinese have pledged to spend US$700 million to construct a new pier and upgrade existing docks. The ultimate goal for China, for which these Greek investments are a stepping stone, is "to create a network of roads, pipelines, railroads and port facilities--sort of a modern Silk Road--to boost East-West trade.
 
This is the latest in a string of major spending by the Chinese in ports and other infrastructure all over the world. Africa is already becoming a major area of Chinese influence – all for the better. We are most likely going to see major positive changes in Africa over the next decade, much better than the non achievements of the UN, the World Bank, the IMF and other sick jokes that have been keeping Africa down and downtrodden for the past six decades.

China is investing heavily in food production throughout Africa. Most certainly much of that output will find its way back to China but the Chinese are increasing food availability and food security in Africa. A nation’s food security depends on the irrigation networks, water supply infrastructure and productive farmland in operation in the country. The Chinese are increasing all these and more in Africa.

The Chinese are also building deep water ports in a place called Gwadar in Baluchistan (Pakistan), Chittagong in Bangladesh, Hambantotta in Sri Lanka and also a place called Kyaukpyu in Myanmar.

All these port developments will have significant positive impact on the immediate economies in these regions and eventually on the world economy.The port at Kyaukpyu is interesting because it is a bypass to the Straits of Malacca.The huge port investments there by the Chinese will see oil and other goods being unloaded and then shipped off to the Chinese interior.

Logically ports like Singapore may be threatened. It is interesting to note that although the Chinese financed and built the new port at Gwadar in Pakistan, they have deferred for the Port of Singapore Authority to operate Gwadar for the next 40 years.

In Sri Lanka China has become a partner of choice for the big Hambantota port project. China’s Export-Import Bank is financing 85 percent of the US$1 billion project (RM3.1 Billion). China Harbour Engineering, a state-owned company, is building it. Similar arrangements have been struck for an international airport nearby.
 
The Sri Lankans are happy that China did not impose “conditions for reform, transparency and competitive bidding” that would be part of contracts with countries like India and the United States or organizations like theWorld Bank.
 

And how do the Americans react to all this positive investment by the Chinese? One US Colonel Christopher J. Pehrson has made a study called: “String of Pearls: Meeting the Challenge of China's Rising Power Across the Asian Littoral”.They always talk in terms of a ‘challenge’, ‘rising power’ bla bla. Sick.

The Americans will become even more of a nuisance. With this attitude, they will have to leave the scene.

This is the new Silk Road. It would be very, very shortsighted if we in Malaysia do not become an active player in these developments involving China. And we are smack in the middle of the entire region.
 
We have already lost out plenty when we did not assist that Chinese involved project to build ports in Kedah and Bachok and connect them by oil pipelines and perhaps a dedicated railroad.That project would have completely changed the northern region as well as the geopolitics of this region (for the better).

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