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Thursday, July 27th, 2017

China is making Iran a hub in its global infrastructure project

Author:     Steve LeVine
Source:     AXIOS
Publication Date:     26 July 2017
 Link: China is making Iran a hub in its global infrastructure project
Stephan:   Historians, in my opinion, are going to describe the Trump Administration as notable for the collapse of American leadership. We are being so badly outplayed by the Chinese, for instance, that I am amazed it is creating so little discussion in the media. Here, in this report, you see the Chinese government planning decades ahead while the Trump administration is fondling the Christofascists for immediate gratification. I think it is pretty clear at this point that China is becoming the world's leader nation. As you read this story just think about its implications in nations across the world. Note particularly the place of Iran in China's plans.

The blue dashes are the projected Chinese Maritime Silk Road. The red dashes are the proposed railroad Silk Road being built. Data: Xinhua; Map: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios

China is building and upgrading railroads in the west and east of Iran, making the Persian Gulf nation the centerpiece of an enormous transportation-and-energy latticework connecting much of the global economy, per the NYT.

Why this is a big deal: In the same way that Britain ruled its 19th century empire through a far-flung navy, and the U.S. has done so through its trade deals and its own big naval ships, Beijing is preparing for the day years from now when it may be the premier global power. Its vehicle is an infrastructural Pax Sinica, what it calls “One Belt, One Road.”

In western Iran, the work is linking Iran with Afghanistan and Central Asia, the oil-rich former Soviet region. In eastern Iran, similar work is connecting the country to Turkey, and from there to Europe. China already has roads, railroads, […]

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2 Comments

  1. Mike S on Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 4:13 pm

    Both parties have served up deplorable leadership of late. if you don’t know that you are blinded by your agenda. Or maybe you thought Clinton made LIbya better for women by having Qaddafi ousted, or Obama spread Democracy with his drone killings. He signed off on doubling the size of the drone program knowing it killed mostly civilians, then doubled it again. yeah The Ds are really wonderful people, humane, compassionate. For an otherwise intelligent man you don’t appear to be paying much attention to things that don’t fit with your agenda.

  2. Stephan Schwartz on Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 7:09 pm

    MIke S — My agenda, and I am very explicit about it, is the fostering of wellbeing from the individual, to the family, the community, nation, and the planet itself. It is my view that the function of the state should be to foster wellbeing. I have no interest in political partisanship except anthropologically. And my calibration for assessing wellbeing is objectively verifiable social outcome data. As it happens as a general rule based on data the Republican Party advocates and enacts social policies that consistently produce grossly inferior social outcomes. My objections are not that they are Republican but that they are inferior.
    — Stephan