{"id":55948,"date":"2015-03-30T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=55948"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:54","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:54","slug":"westward-ho-on-chinas-eurasia-bric-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/westward-ho-on-chinas-eurasia-bric-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Westward Ho on China\u2019s Eurasia BRIC Road"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pepe<\/a>

Pepe Escobar<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201c\u2026it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger (to the U.S.)<\/em>
\n emerges capable of dominating Eurasia<\/em>
\nand thus also of challenging America.\u201d<\/em>
\n— Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard, 1997<\/p>\n

21 Mar 2015 – <\/em>What\u2019s in a name, rather an ideogram? Everything. A single Chinese character \u2013 jie (for \u201cbetween\u201d) \u2013 graphically illustrates the key foreign policy initiative of the new Chinese dream.<\/p>\n

In the upper part of the four-stroke character \u2013 which, symbolically, should be read as the roof of a house \u2013 the stroke on the left means the Silk Road Economic Belt, and the stroke on the right means the 21st century Maritime Silk Road. In the lower part, the stroke on the left means the China-Pakistan corridor, via Xinjiang province, and the stroke on the right, the China-Myanmar-Bangladesh-India corridor via Yunnan province.<\/p>\n

Chinese culture feasts on myriad formulas, mottoes \u2013 and symbols. If many a Chinese scholar worries about how the Middle Kingdom\u2019s new intimation of soft power may be lost in translation, the character jie \u2013 pregnant with connectivity \u2013 is already the starting point to make 1.3 billion Chinese, plus the overseas Chinese diaspora, visualize the top twin axis \u2013 continental and naval \u2013 of the New Silk Road vision unveiled by President Xi Jinping, a concept also known as \u201cOne Road, One Belt\u201d.<\/p>\n

In practical terms, it also helps that the New Silk Road will be boosted by a special, multi-billion-dollar Silk Road Fund and the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which, not by accident, has attracted the attention of European investors.<\/p>\n

The New Silk Road, actually roads, symbolizes China\u2019s pivot to an old heartland: Eurasia. That implies a powerful China even more enriched by its environs, without losing its essence as a civilization-state. Call it a post-modern remix of the Tang, Sung and early Ming dynasties \u2013 as Beijing deftly and recently stressed via a superb exhibition in the National Museum of China consisting of rare early Silk Road pieces assembled from a range of regional museums.<\/p>\n

In the past, China had a unifying infrastructure enterprise like the Great Wall. In the future it will have a major project of unifying Eurasia via high-speed rail. When one considers the breadth of this vision, depictions of Xi striving to be an equal of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping sound so pedestrian.<\/p>\n

Of course China\u2019s new drive may be interpreted as the stirrings of a new tributary system, ordered and centered in Beijing. At the same time, many in the U.S. are uncomfortable that the New Silk Road may be a geopolitical, \u201cpeaceful development\u201d, \u201cwin-win\u201d answer to the Obama administration\u2019s Pentagon-driven pivoting to Asia.<\/p>\n

Beijing has been quick to dismiss any notions of hegemony. It maintains this is no Marshall Plan<\/a>. It\u2019s undeniable that the Marshall Plan \u201ccovered only Western nations and excluded all countries and regions the West thought were ideologically close to the Soviet Union\u201d. China, on the other hand, is focused on integrating \u201cemerging economies\u201d into a vast, pan-Eurasian trade\/commerce network.<\/p>\n

Achtung! Seidenstrasse! (Attention! Silk Road!)<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder top nations in the beleaguered EU have gravitated to the AIIB \u2013 which will play a key role in the New Silk Road(s). A German geographer \u2013 Ferdinand von Richthofen \u2013 invented the Seidenstrasse (Silk Road) concept. Marco Polo forever linked Italy with the Silk Road. The EU is already China\u2019s number one trade partner. And, once again symbolically, this happens to be the 40th year of China-EU relations. Watch the distinct possibility of an emerging Sino-European Fund that finances infrastructure and even green energy projects across an integrated Eurasia.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s as if the Angel of History \u2013 that striking image in a Paul Klee painting eulogized by philosopher Walter Benjamin \u2013 is now trying to tell us that a 21st century China-EU Seidenstrasse synergy is all but inevitable. And that, crucially, would have to include Russia, which is a vital part of the New Silk Road through an upcoming, Russia-China financed $280 billion high-speed rail upgrade of the Trans-Siberian railway. This is where the New Silk Road project and President Putin\u2019s initial idea of a huge trade emporium from Lisbon to Vladivostok actually merge.<\/p>\n

In parallel, the 21st century Maritime Silk Road will deepen the already frantic trade interaction between China and Southeast Asia by sea. Fujian province \u2013 which faces Taiwan \u2013 will play a key role. Xi, crucially, spent many years of his life in Fujian. And Hong Kong, not by accident, also wants to be part of the action<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All these developments are driven by China being finally ready to become a massive net exporter of capital and the top source of credit for the Global South. In a few months, Beijing will launch the http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2015\/03\/09\/us-china-yuan-payments-exclusive-idUSKBN0M50BV20150309 China International Payment System (CIPS), bound to turbo-charge the yuan as a key global currency for all types of trade. There\u2019s the AIIB. And if that was not enough, there\u2019s still the New Development Bank, launched by the BRICs to compete with the World Bank, and run from Shanghai.<\/p>\n

It can be argued that the success of the entire Silk Road hinges on how Beijing will handle restive, Uyghur-populated Xinjiang \u2013 which should be seen as one of key nodes of Eurasia. This is a subplot \u2013 fraught with insecurity, to say the least \u2013 that should be followed in detail for the rest of the decade. What\u2019s certain is that most of Asia will feel the tremendous pull of China\u2019s Eurasian drive.<\/p>\n

And Eurasia \u2013 contrary to perennial Brzezinski wishful thinking \u2013 will likely take the form of a geopolitical challenge: A de facto China-Russia strategic partnership that manifests itself in various facets of the New Silk Road that also bolsters the strength of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).<\/p>\n

By then, both Iran and Pakistan will be SCO members. The close relations between what was ancient Persia and China span two millennia \u2013 and now they are viewed by Beijing as a matter of national security. Pakistan is an essential node of the Maritime Silk Road, especially when one considers the Indian Ocean port of Gwadar, which in a few years may double as a key transit point of the IP or Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline. It may also be the starting point of yet another major Chinese Pipelineistan gambit parallel to the Karakorum highway, delivering gas to Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

Beijing values both Iran and Pakistan \u2013 the intersection of Southwest Asia and South Asia \u2013 as fundamentally strategic nodes of the New Silk Road. This allows China to project trade\/commerce power not only in the Indian Ocean but the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n

Got vision, will travel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s alarm at these developments betrays the glaring absence of an enticing made -in-the-USA vision to woo pan-Eurasian public opinion \u2013 apart from a hazy military pivoting posture mixed with relentless NATO expansion, and the TTIP \u201cfree trade\u201d corporate racket, also known across Asia as \u201cNATO on trade\u201d.<\/p>\n

The counter punch to the above could be already coming via the BRICs; the SCO; the non-stop http:\/\/rt.com\/news\/238857-china-russia-mature-partnership\/ strengthtening of the China-Russia strategic partnership. There\u2019s also the expansion of the Eurasian Union (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia \u2013 with Kyrgyzstan soon acceding, followed by Tajikistan). In the Middle East, Syria is seriously studying the possibility, and a trade agreement with Egypt has already been clinched. In Southeast Asia, a pact with Vietnam will be a done deal by the end of 2015.<\/p>\n

Russia and China\u2019s \u201csecret\u201d agenda in helping to clinch an Iran-P5+1 nuclear deal paves the way for Tehran to be admitted to the SCO as a full member. Expect, as early as 2016, an SCO alignment that unites at least 60% of Eurasia, with a population of 3.5 billion people and a wealth of oil and gas that more than matches the Gulf Cooperation Council states.<\/p>\n

So the real story is not how China will collapse<\/a>, as peddled by David Shambaugh, the so-called second top China expert in the U.S. (who\u2019s the first? Henry Kissinger?) This is a line that\u2019s been soundly debunked<\/a> by many sources. The real story, which a revived Asia Times will be covering in detail in upcoming years, is how the myriad aspects of the New Silk Road will be configuring a new Eurasian dream. Have vision, will travel. Bon voyage.<\/p>\n

_____________________________<\/p>\n

Pepe Escobar, from Brazil, is the roving correspondent for Asia Times\/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the author of <\/em>Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War<\/a> (Nimble Books, 2007), <\/em>Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge<\/a> (Nimble Books, 2007), and <\/em>Obama does Globalistan<\/a> (Nimble Books, 2009). His new <\/em>book is Empire of Chaos<\/a>.<\/em> He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 atimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The real story is not how China will collapse, as peddled by David Shambaugh, the so-called second top China expert in the U.S. (who\u2019s the first? Henry Kissinger?) This is a line that\u2019s been soundly debunked. The real story is how the myriad aspects of the New Silk Road will be configuring a new Eurasian dream. Have vision, will travel. Bon voyage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}