Posted on 02/01/2007 4:38:15 AM PST by Jerry Reynolds
Chinese President Hu Jintao presides over a China more aware than ever that without access to vast amounts of natural resources including petroleum, copper, zinc and other elements China’s booming economic dynamo could be slowed and even forced into disarray if not chaos.
Consequently President Hu is in Africa this week on his third trip to the resources rich continent.
China has a ten year record of heavy investments in needed projects in Africa in a deal that brings home to China millions of barrels of oil and billions of tons of other resources.
President Hu has taken a very personal interest in this state sponsored initiatives.
Some call the China trade route with Africa “The New Silk Road.” The ancient Chinese Silk Road connect people as far east as Korea with a more than 5,000 mile trade route that brought goods and trade to the Mediterranean Sea and Europeans.
Over the past decade, China and Africa have developed a strong relationship. Trade has grown to $40 billion. And Chinese investment has poured into copper mines and oil fields, helping to boost African economies.
China as made huge inroads into African economies nearly paralyzed under economic sanction designed to encourage African nations to provide more protections on human rights. Those sanctions usually come from the United States and the European Union, according to Scott Sagan, co-director of the Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation.
“The Chinese, for example, cut a deal with Sudan as a means of creating energy security for themselves,” said Dr. Sagan. “It inhibits efforts of the international community to encourage that government to behave responsibly.”
(Excerpt) Read more at johnib.wordpress.com ...
"China’s booming economic dynamo could be slowed and even forced into disarray if not chaos"
I can live with that.
So could I, but with the forces they could bring to bear, they just might decide to take what they can.
They just built a whole railway system cutting into Tibet, to help with the recovery of minerals from rich mine-sites along the way. The railway also doubles as a means of populating Tibet with the Han peoples.
China is playing her cards with Africa. It is not just for minerals.
Actually there is more than enough sitting to their north, and they have been playing nice to Putin lately. I have a feeling that this will be the productive direction they take, a few new rail lines to the north and all that empty vast treasure trove of resources can be accessed for cold hard cash that the Russians need.
That may happen, but the Russians aren't exactly cozy with the Chinese. They tout their "alliance" with the Chinese whenever it helps them to use it to scare America, atleast in it's population's view. Otherwise, they know the Chinese danger lurking in their background.
I can't believe that since they've never opened their books to outsides -- "outsiders" both foreign and domestic. China's "booming economic dynamo" is sort of like Kerry's military records: Why the delay refusal to let the sunshine in?
Guess who is following Hu Jintao... Vladimir Putin. Putin and Jintao want to wrap up all of the world's natural resources.
Russia and China absolutely need each other right now.
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