At China-Kazakh border: New Silk Roads in action — Pepe Escobar

Central Asia, between China and Europe, is bustling

Take the tour with Pepe.

Asia Times
At China-Kazakh border: New Silk Roads in action
Pepe Escobar

A New Pipeline Could Undo America’s Influence In Asia — Simon Watkins

From the moment that the U.S. re-imposed sanctions in earnest on Iran late last year, Pakistan has been looking at ways to resuscitate a deal that had been agreed in principle before the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last May. This deal involved moving as much gas as Pakistan needs from Iran’s Asalouyeh into Pakistan’s Gwadar and then on to Nawabshah for further transit if required. At the same time, China has been in long-running discussions with Pakistan over the specific projects that Beijing wanted to place in Pakistan as part of its ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR) programme. All the while, the U.S. has been trying to stymie any such arrangement but OilPrice.com understands that the Iran-China-Pakistan deal is now back on, and with a vengeance.

China’s covert strategic deals are virtually always buried in interminably long anodyne statements that belie the true laser-focused intentions of Beijing and this time is no different....

Oilprice
A New Pipeline Could Undo America’s Influence In Asia

Simon Watkins

A blue dot barely visible from New Silk Roads — Pepe Escobar

More background on Eurasian integration as the US announces its plan (Blue Dot Network) to compete with China's New Silk Road Economic Belt (BRI).

The Vineyard of the Saker
A blue dot barely visible from New Silk Roads
Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar — The RCEP train left the station, and India, behind

The barely disguised secret is that India’s economy, as the historical record shows, is inherently protectionist. There’s no way a possible removal of agricultural tariffs protecting farmers would not provoke a social cataclysm....

The Vineyard of the Saker
The RCEP train left the station, and India, behind
Pepe Escobar

SouthFront — US Announces “Blue Dot Network” To Compete With China’s Belt And Road

On November 4th, the US announced it’s take on the a “standard for global #infrastructure development,” the Blue Dot Network....

It is a joint project of the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). It is a global “sustainable infrastructure development in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world,” according to the OPIC press release....

SouthFront
US Announces “Blue Dot Network” To Compete With China’s Belt And Road

Western intellectuals freak over ‘Frankenstein’ China — Pepe Escobar

BRI and the New Silk Roads (land and maritime).

The Vineyard of the Saker
Western intellectuals freak over ‘Frankenstein’ China
Pepe Escobar

Sultan shines in the court of the Dragon King — Pepe Escobar

Rebuffed by the EU, NATO-member Turkey pivots away from the West toward Eurasian integration. Russia and China smile. US scowls. Iran in play.

Asia Times
Sultan shines in the court of the Dragon King
Pepe Escobar

PEPE ESCOBAR: The Unipolar Moment is Over

The most important is a bombshell: a commitment to develop bilateral trade and cross-border payments using the ruble and the yuan, bypassing the U.S. dollar.

This implies that the USD will play no role in Eurasian integration.

Consortium News
PEPE ESCOBAR: The Unipolar Moment is Over
Pepe Escobar

Matthew Ehret — The Polar Silk Road Comes to Life as a New Epoch in History Begins

Speaking at China’s second Belt and Road conference in Beijing featuring 37 heads of state, Russia President Vladimir Putin unveiled the intention to unite Russia’s Northern Sea Route with China’s Maritime Silk Road. This announcement should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the close strategic friendship between both countries since the 2015 announcement of an alliance between the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union and Belt and Road Initiative. This extension of the Maritime Silk Road represents a powerful force to transform the last unexplored frontier on the Earth, converting the Arctic from a geopolitical zone of conflict towards a new paradigm of mutual cooperation and development....

Strategic Culture Foundation
The Polar Silk Road Comes to Life as a New Epoch in History Begins

Matthew Ehret

Pepe Escobar — The Eagle, the Bear and the Dragon

The eagle has conveniently forgotten that the original, Ancient Silk Road linked the dragon with the Roman empire for centuries – with no interlopers outside of Eurasia, muses Pepe Escobar.

Consortium News
PEPE ESCOBAR: The Eagle, the Bear and the Dragon

Pepe Escobar — We’re all actors in the New Silk Road play

The BRI forum’s key takeaway was Beijing’s ability to execute a masterful geopolitical Sun Tzu maneuver – realizing that for the scheme to proceed more smoothly it would have to address key questions about debt sustainability, anti-corruption, consultative processes, plus emphasize “bottom-up” negotiations.

Scores of nations across the Global South, as well as some aspiring to developed world status, have adopted the Chinese investment and development model over financing from Washington or Brussels for three very simple reasons: no strings attached, no one-size-fits-all straitjacket, and no interference in their internal affairs....

The West freaking out because it is actually going to compete rather than extract rents?

The Chinese system works like this. The top of the pyramid issues a guideline, or a plan, and then the subsequent layers of the pyramid come up with their own implementation strategies, tweaking the process non-stop. It’s always a variant of Little Helmsman Deng Xiaoping’s famous dictum “crossing the river while feeling the stones.”...

Asia Times
We’re all actors in the New Silk Road play

Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar — China’s road to a win-win ahead of BRI forum

Relentless reports that the New Silk Roads, or the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), are a perfidious neo-imperial debt trap set up by Yellow Peril 2.0 are vastly exaggerated.

With less than one week to go before the next BRI forum in Beijing, a quick overview of what’s been happening in Europe and Southwest Asia may be quite enlightening....

The BRI is set to bring the lagging economies (and societies) in Asia into the 21st century in a way similar to the dynamic growth of China since the Deng era, but free of Western control, unlike Japan and South Korea. Europe has no choice but to join. And if the US doesn't change its imperialistic approach, the rest of the South (Latin America and Africa) is headed that way, too.

Asia Times
China’s road to a win-win ahead of BRI forum

Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar — All roads lead to Rome for Xi

Backgrounder on Italy and BRI (and more). China marches (and sails) west.

Asia Times
All roads lead to Rome for Xi

Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar — Get over it: Asia rules

The greatest merit of Parag Khanna’s new book, The Future is Asian, is to accessibly tell the story of a historical inevitability – with the extra bonus of an Asian point of view. This is not only a very good public service, it also blows out of the water countless tomes by Western “experts” pontificating about Asia from an air-con cubicle in Washington....

Good backgrounder.

Asia Times
Get over it: Asia rules

Pepe Escobar

See also

The American Conservative
Beltway Warriors Target China as the Next Global ThreatLeon Hadar

Pepe Escobar — The new Great Game on the Roof of the World

Backgrounder focusing especially on Pakistan. The potential is enormous, but so are the challenges. But it's happening, in spite of obstacles thrown in the way by the US and UK (an area where the British Empire was actively engaged in the 19th century).

Asia Times
The new Great Game on the Roof of the World

Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar — How the New Silk Roads are merging into Greater Eurasia

The concept of Greater Eurasia has been discussed at the highest levels of Russian academia and policy-making for some time. This week the policy was presented at the Council of Ministers and looks set to be enshrined, without fanfare, as the main guideline of Russian foreign policy for the foreseeable future.

President Putin is unconditionally engaged to make it a success. Already at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in 2016, Putin referred to an emerging “Eurasian partnership”.

I was privileged over the past week to engage in excellent discussions in Moscow with some of the top Russian analysts and policymakers involved in advancing Greater Eurasia.…

Important.

Asia Times

How the New Silk Roads are merging into Greater Eurasia

Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar — New Silk Roads define brand China

Pepe Escobar explains how the BRI is the defining concept of the rest of the 21st century, not just brand China. Sea power will no longer be key geopolitically, which shuts out the chief advantage of the Anglo-American Empire, since the core of the empire consists of relatively small islands in comparison with the vastness of the world island as the "geographical pivot of history" (Halford Mackinder).

Asia Times
New Silk Roads define brand China

Pepe Escobar

Paul Dobson — Venezuela’s Maduro Secures $5bn Chinese Loan & Joins Beijing’s New Silk Road Initiative

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro returned to Caracas Monday upon concluding a four-day visit to the People’s Republic of China, which saw the two countries sign twenty-eight bilateral agreements, including a new US $5 billion Chinese loan and joint plans for a fourth satellite, in addition to strengthening political ties....

“I have had to overcome economic sanction measures by the US and Europe, who persecute Venezuelan bank accounts, kidnap billions of dollars in international accounts and block commerce,” Maduro told Chinese state TV....

Venezuelanalysis
Venezuela’s Maduro Secures $5bn Chinese Loan & Joins Beijing’s New Silk Road Initiative

Paul Dobson

Pepe Escobar — Why Europe is afraid of the New Silk Roads

The BRI, for Beijing, is all about geopolitical but most of all geo-economic projection – including the promotion of new global standards and norms that may not be exactly those practiced by the EU. And that brings us to the heart of the matter, not enounced by the leaked internal report; the intersection between BRI and Made in China: 2025.

Beijing is aiming to become a global high-tech leader in less than seven years. Made in China: 2025 identified 10 sectors – including AI, robotics, aerospace, green cars and shipping and shipbuilding – as priorities.

Leapfrogging.

Western global preeminence is threatened economically.

As Bauer CEO Thomas Bauer told Reuters: “(Rivalry with China) will not be a contest against copiers. It will be one against innovative engineers.”

The obvious problem that Western countries face against China is the difference in population. There are going to be a lot more highly qualified Chinese engineers.

Asia Times
Why Europe is afraid of the New Silk Roads

Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar — China’s ‘New Silk Roads’ reach Latin America

Beijing is turbo-charging its infrastructure connectivity across the region and the Caribbean.

"Who lost Latin America?"

Asia Times
China’s ‘New Silk Roads’ reach Latin America
Pepe Escobar

See also

Talk of four nation-led ‘alternative’ to Belt and Road picks up steam

Asia Times Staff

See also

Australia, the United States, India and Japan are talking about establishing a joint regional infrastructure scheme as an alternative to China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative in an attempt to counter Beijing’s spreading influence, the Australian Financial Review reported on Monday, citing a senior US official.

The Asian Age
India, US, Japan, Aus form ‘quad’ to compete with China’s BRI: report

Reuters