China got what it wanted on all fronts.Giving the West heartburn.
1) Beijing had all 21 APEC member-nations endorsing the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) - the Chinese vision of an "all inclusive, all-win" trade deal capable of advancing Asia-Pacific cooperation - see South China Morning Post (paywall). The loser was the US-driven, corporate-redacted, fiercely opposed (especially by Japan and Malaysia) 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). [See also here.]
2) Beijing advanced its blueprint for "all-round connectivity" (in Xi's words) across Asia-Pacific - which implies a multi-pronged strategy. One of its key features is the implementation of the Beijing-based US$50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. That's China's response to Washington refusing to give it a more representative voice at the International Monetary Fund than the current, paltry 3.8% of votes (a smaller percentage than the 4.5% held by stagnated France).
3) Beijing and Moscow committed to a second gas mega-deal - this one through the Altai pipeline in Western Siberia - after the initial "Power of Siberia" mega-deal clinched last May.
4) Beijing announced the funneling of no less than US$40 billion to start building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.
Predictably, once again, this vertiginous flurry of deals and investment had to converge towards the most spectacular, ambitious, wide-ranging plurinational infrastructure offensive ever attempted: the multiple New Silk Roads - that complex network of high-speed rail, pipelines, ports, fiber optic cables and state of the art telecom that China is already building across the Central Asian stans, linked to Russia, Iran, Turkey and the Indian Ocean, and branching out to Europe all the way to Venice, Rotterdam, Duisburg and Berlin.
Now imagine the paralyzed terror of the Washington/Wall Street elites as they stare at Beijing interlinking Xi's "Asia-Pacific Dream"way beyond East Asia towards all-out, pan-Eurasia trade - with the center being, what else, the Middle Kingdom; a near future Eurasia as a massive Chinese Silk Belt with, in selected latitudes, a sort of development condominium with Russia.Asia Times Online
China’s Silky Road to Glory
Pepe Escobar
3 comments:
If you take away the progressive spin and war-mongering, where Washington is "paralyzed with terror" and instead imagine a Washington that is delighted with the regional development, economic growth and stability, everything in the world is fine and going according to plan. The Chinese trade deal is better than TPP and less controversial because it isn't designed by corporations with narrow self interest. It is a victory for the US and all of it's constituents, corporations too that don't want to be trapped by a trade pact drafted by a few Democrat party supporters that had access to the process.
right Ryan and I would point out that you dont see the west acting like zombies trying to obtain balances of their currencies and steal their technology, rip off their ideas, moving there, etc...
Tom, I think this 'middle kingdom' stuff was applicable back when we pursued empires and used horses only... they needed all of that land mass to multiply horse flesh and it was an advantage... memo to Escobar we dont use horses any more its the 21st century....
And I wouldnt call being a slave-zombie for balances of another nation's currency "glory"... its subservient...
rsp,
Tom,
If we would let them, the Chinese military would parachute in grass-cutters who would cut our lawns for 10 USDs....
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