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China has great plans with its “new silk route.” An unexpected corner of the world threatens to truncar them: Myanmar

China has too many open fronts. On the one hand, the Technological War With the West who is serving to boost your technology industry. On the other hand, the Commercial War which is making natural resources monopolize. Also his impulse to renewable energiesbecoming the main power and growing so much that their companies have beenNzarzado in a price war.

To add more pepper to the matter, its great project of the new silk route encounters an unexpected enemy: a neighboring country at war since 1948.

New Silk Route. For hundreds of years, the Silk route connected the Southeast Asia with the Mediterranean. It was a series of commercial routes open by China that not only allowed a trade between many countries, but a way of expanding their influence abroad. With the decline of China due to Opium wars Already new commercial routes, in the nineteenth century, the silk route passed to the background.

In the 21st century, with the new Chinese economic splendor and the desire to recover that international influence, the country impulse The initiative of the new Silk route. In 2013, President Xi Jinping advertisement His intention to revitalize the old commercial ties between Asia, Europe and in North Africa, this being one of China’s most ambitious strategies.

Milmillonaria investment. The advantages seem obvious. Currently, the vast majority of world trade depends on a few maritime routes. The Portenero ships They are a ‘cheap’ solution to transport tons of goods, but they depend on a few points of passage that, if they see interrupted its activity For any reason, They cause world chaos.

With a land transport, not only another route is achieved to move merchandise, but you can shorten times. With a land transport from Southeast Asia to Germany, the merchandise would take about two weeks to arrive. With the same route by sea, time is dilated until just over a month.

Silk route map
Silk route map

China, being the great producer of the world, has sought to increase its position with this rail transport, something for which you have had to invest Much money in infrastructure deployment and in route width adaptations with certain paths, such as the old Soviet lines with a different path width. HE esteem that this investment has been almost a billion of euros not only in a railroad, but in ports, airports, stations and other infrastructure.

Criticism. Countries around the world They benefit of these investments promoted by China. Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Malaysia or Vietnam have received important investments in land and maritime infrastructure. Russia has also improved its rail connections, improving trade between two countries (that they are needing so much). Italy and Greece have also received investments in ports. Egypt, more of the same with the strategy of the Chinese economic and commercial cooperation zone. And Panama also signed a agreement for the expansion of the train line (which just had fall After Trump’s arrival)

It is one tremendous strategy both for sea and land that involves many countries and, as expected, it does not do it Too much grace. The reason is that they consider that it is a strategy from China to gain influence on developing countries, something that can play against US interests in countries, especially the Middle East, in which they have military facilities.

Myanmar. The problem is that they have encountered a civil war. Myanmar, previously Burma, has been in crisis for two centuries. In the nineteenth century there were the Anglo-Birian wars, which continued in 1948 with the civil war of Myanmar. They achieved the independence of the United Kingdom, but their society was fragmented and a tremendous civil war that persists to this day began.

Everything was intensified with the 2021 coup d’etat to overthrow the democratic government, which has led to a new war situation with millions of internal displacements in recent years. And, in that lack of lack of control, with internal struggles to control territories and commercial roads, China has encountered an important stumbling block in the development of its new silk route.

Rare earth. China and Myanmar share more than 2,100 kilometers of border, being the Chinese province of Yunnan is the most affected. And the problem is that the presence of military groups and ethnic tensions is preventing China Agreements of the new silk route.

The area, in addition, is rich in Rare earthsomething that China dominates and wants to continue controllingso the country is showing warm with the situation of its neighbors.

China’s role. As we read in BBCChina did not want to get wet in this whole matter, which is now splashing. When the army gave the coup d’etat, Xi Jinping did not condemn him and continued to sell them weapons. However, he also did not recognize the military as the new heads of state. In fact, experts already consider that China is pressing so that things are again as before, not because they want to return to democracy or peace, but because they want to continue developing their commercial strategy.

From the Myanmar regime it is suspected that Beijing is playing two bands supporting both the army and the rebels, who use Chinese weapons. But, the only thing China can do right now is to wait and press on both sides to achieve a peace agreement that allows them to continue with their businesses.

Meanwhile, and as always, the people are the one who is suffering the consequences, with more than three million displaced and thousands of dead since 2021.

Images | Rowanwindwhistler

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