China's overland Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road Thread

[schrage musik]

Timepass this happens to be one of my favorite threads in the forum. Just a request though: if you could attach the pics with your posts instead of directly linking to the facebook images it would be so much better. Facebook pages come and go and all the pictures you've uploaded will stop working when that happens with the cpec page. If you attach the pictures to your posts they will stay here no matter what.

Plus this will help those members whose workplace doesn't allow access to fb and such

 

[FactsPlease]

To believe in zero chances of India joining BRI, including CPEC, is the equivalent of saying one knows the ebbs and flows of future geopolitical currents, and the ripples they generate in forms of unanticipated events. Is that truly your position?

I tend to agree with Blackstone.
1. I can hardly imagine that a grand, global geopolitical strategy of China will intentionally exclude a specific country, especially a huge market. CCP leaders had shown their intelligence to (try) engage and include. A proper correction could be: it's good to make CPEC a profitable example for any countries willing to "board" on China development ship. Or at least it's enough for those yet-interested or even potential rival. Once the benefit is or looks can be real, China can offer 2nd chance. Like Blackstone said, if India still says no, it is its loss.
2. Talking about cost and risk, certain additional diplomatic effort and a game to balance Pakistan's feeling (shouldn't be hard as it already got the lion's share) is trivial compared to the 100b investment in CPEC.
3. Somehow back to 1, do not forget the main objective of all OBOR and CPEC initiatives is to build the architecture and, even more, a framework of influence for a multi-polar system. Or at minimum starting to shake off current power structure. Why China has to set red line preemptively? Think the 'great game", is India in the top tier of target now? Then why not try a little bit further to draw it in? After all, time is on China's side.

 

[AndrewS]

I think China just has to approach India/OBOR like the AIIB.
Yes, China invited Japan and the USA to join the AIIB but they declined.

However there is a standing invitation for Japan and the USA to join, but as time go on, the terms become less and less favourable, and they have less influence when they finally do join.

In the long-run, the AIIB should end up much more influential than the combined ADB and WB, so one really struggles to see how Japan and the USA can avoid joining in the end.

 

[AndrewS]

Critical article from the SCMP on Silk Road railway services.

PUFFING ACROSS THE ‘ONE BELT, ONE ROAD’ RAIL ROUTE TO NOWHERE

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But it's contradicted by the situation which shows a continuing increase in China-Europe railway services due to increasing demand.

Chengdu to run 1,000 cargo trains to Europe in 2017

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German rail giant ramps up 'Silk Road' freight line to China

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[dingyibvs]

I tend to agree with Blackstone.
1. I can hardly imagine that a grand, global geopolitical strategy of China will intentionally exclude a specific country, especially a huge market. CCP leaders had shown their intelligence to (try) engage and include. A proper correction could be: it's good to make CPEC a profitable example for any countries willing to "board" on China development ship. Or at least it's enough for those yet-interested or even potential rival. Once the benefit is or looks can be real, China can offer 2nd chance. Like Blackstone said, if India still says no, it is its loss.
2. Talking about cost and risk, certain additional diplomatic effort and a game to balance Pakistan's feeling (shouldn't be hard as it already got the lion's share) is trivial compared to the 100b investment in CPEC.
3. Somehow back to 1, do not forget the main objective of all OBOR and CPEC initiatives is to build the architecture and, even more, a framework of influence for a multi-polar system. Or at minimum starting to shake off current power structure. Why China has to set red line preemptively? Think the 'great game", is India in the top tier of target now? Then why not try a little bit further to draw it in? After all, time is on China's side.

Nobody's arguing to exclude India in the BRI, we're debating the utility of an active (Blackstone) vs. a passive (AndrewS, see below) approach.

I think China just has to approach India/OBOR like the AIIB.
Yes, China invited Japan and the USA to join the AIIB but they declined.

However there is a standing invitation for Japan and the USA to join, but as time go on, the terms become less and less favourable, and they have less influence when they finally do join.

In the long-run, the AIIB should end up much more influential than the combined ADB and WB, so one really struggles to see how Japan and the USA can avoid joining in the end.

Exactly, I think both will sign on, and it'll happen sooner rather than later. Diplomatic efforts may be better spent here.

 

[timepass]

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11 projects of 11,000 MW to be completed before deadline under

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.

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[timepass]

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Pakistan Motorway M2 , western Corridor

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[A.Man]

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The Central Station Of The New Silk Road Has Emerged

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,

Contributor

I travel to emerging markets around Asia and report on what I find.


I spend my time traveling around Asia reporting on emerging markets, technological developments, and urbanization as seen from the ground. I have a particularly strong interest in new cities, China's shanzhai manufacturing ecosystem, and the new trade routes between China and Europe. I am the author of "Ghost Cities of China: The Story of Cities Without People in the World's Most Populated Country," a book which explores and explains the peculiar nuances of China's urbanization movement. I have been featured in, interviewed by, or appeared on CNBC Squawk Box, CBC The Current, Forbes.com, VICE, NPR Morning Edition, BBC World, among others. I am currently traveling the various land and sea routes of China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative, more romantically known as the New Silk Road, collecting information, insights, and stories for a book on the topic.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

The Brooklyn Startup Bringing Eyewear Manufacturing Back To America

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, a major new dry port that’s rising up from the desert in Kazakhstan’s eastern borderlands, has just taken the next step in the process of developing into the great crossroads of nations that it has been posited to become — a central station along a new Silk Road.

Fueled by the

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, the Khorgos dream is grandiose but its origins are rooted in pragmatism. The width of train tracks are different in China than in the post-Soviet realm, so trains need to stop and relay their cargo at the border. This simple logistical event is what gave rise to what is rapidly becoming an entirely new, multifaceted economic ecosystem in what was nothing but sand dunes just five years before on the Kazakh / China border. The thinking here is that if the trains need to stop anyway, why not do something with them? Why not leverage this event into something that could bolster both the local economy and position Kazakhstan at the center of a great new matrix of trans-continental transportation and trade? So instead of just being a mere transit zone, where rail cargo pauses briefly before carrying on its way, Khorgos Gateway would become a full fledged logistical hub — a strategic location where products can be shipped in and out from all corners of Eurasia, be warehoused, and even manufactured.

As of today, Khorgos Gateway’s sole function is to transfer containers from trains coming from China and putting them on trains heading to Europe or other international destinations. The dry port is a montage of six sets of train tracks lined up side by side -- the three on the left are for trains coming from China; the three on the right are for trains going west to other Central Asian states or Europe beyond. When trains pull in their platforms are lined up side by side and the containers are simply transferred over from one to the other via giant 41-ton gantry cranes in a process that can be completed in as little as 47 minutes.

To Be Continued

 

[A.Man]

What Khorgos Gateway looked like in the beginning, in 2014.

However, very soon the cargo flows coming through here will become exponentially more complex, as Khorgos Gateway was recently approved to become a consolidation hub. This means that the dry port will not only be transshipping direct cargo trains, but will be able to break these trains apart to build new ones, extending the gateway's reach to myriad new destinations throughout Eurasia.

“We will meet all of these trains and make the reloading to the container yard and we will make our own block trains -- full trains to Almaty, to Tashkent, to Europe, to Central Asia, to the Caucasus,” said Zhaslan Khamzin, the current CEO of Khorgos Gateway.

“If you have them all [China-Europe trains] routed into, for instance, Khorgos; from Khorgos, you can then rebuild trains to other destinations directly into Europe or even into the Middle East. It is the same way eastbound. If you have trains coming in with containers from France, from Spain, from Germany, from Poland to Khorgos you can re-consolidate and then onward you can ship these containers further back to Guangzhou, Zhengzhou,” explained Ronald Kleijwegt, HP’s former head of logistics who was an instrumental force behind the development of

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.

This new development will not only make Khorgos Gateway vastly more versatile but will also allow locally-produced goods to tap into the international cargo flow. So corn products from nearby Zharkent, for example, could be loaded onto trains and easily shipped to destinations from Europe to China. It would also provide a new impetus to invest in the massive DP World-advised logistics and industrial zones that are adjacent to the dry port, which are currently little more than sprawling empty fields.

According to Khamzin, HP is already in the process of moving in to set up a warehousing operation at Khorgos.

“Today, there is HP,” he said. “Tomorrow there will be DHL, Dell, Lenova, Asus, Acer. A lot of companies can come here.”

Khorgos Gateway has recently developed into a consolidation hub.

In order for the New Silk Road to amount to anything, the network needs to be more sophisticated than a few dozen

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and vice versa, effectively skipping right over all of the markets and potential production sources en route. Khorgos Gateway has become one of the most advanced and impactful projects of the New Silk Road so far, and is now on the verge of developing into a the junction between China, Russia, South Asia, Iran, the Caucasus, and Europe that it was intended to become back when it was nothing more than a dirt lot and a dream.

I'm the author of

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. I'm currently traveling the New Silk Road doing research for a new book.

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.

 

[dingyibvs]

Good article, though I expect nothing less from Wade Shepard. I've been following him since his humble beginnings as a blogger for vagabond journey, and the guy writes some excellent stuff. I remember when he visited the first "ghost city" in China and became fascinated by it, and I was impressed by how much time he spent over the years to dig so deep into the phenomenon and unearth the story that remains untold in the MSM. He's really taken to the New Silk Road lately, and his articles on it are some of the best.