Yesterday the Russian and Chinese leaders warned other nations of attempting any world domination – no prize for guessing who they were directing their warnings at?
The real story behind the new tension between the big powers is all about oil. The supply of cheap oil is now threatened with the theory of peak oil.
The Chinese has been cleverly outflanking the Americans on many oil fronts, making deals with Venezuela, Sudan, Iran, the Central Asian “-stan” Nations (where some humongous oil fields exist), Myanmar, Indonesia and even Australia (for gas and uranium).
It has, will or propose to invest in oil and gas pipelines from Iran to China, the “-stan” nations to China, Russia (Siberia) to China, Venezuela to the Pacific coast via Columbia, across the Kra Isthmus (or even a Kra canal to accommodate oil tankers).
The USA was so spooked by the Chinese unquenchable thirst and hugh wallet that it quickly went to war to occupy and dominated oil-rich Iraq. Prior to the American invasion of Iraq, Chinese technicians were already there, for example, laying optic fibre cables for Saddam Hussein’s government plus a host of other business projects. The invasion of Iraq has also been intended to protect the US' oil assets in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. But its precipitious and illegal action has backfired, drawing America into another Vietnam-like mess.
In the meanwhile, the Chinese smiles, maybe gives out a panda or two to foreign zoos of oil nations, and signs oil deals that are far more lucrative than American offers, because they can afford to do so due to their far cheaper labour cost and higher productivity.
Watch them, they’ll be concluding deals with Iraq (or in its new form, eg. Kurdistan or Southern Shiite Iraq, etc) and other Gulf nations. Their weapons of ‘shock & awe’ will be plenty of RMB and other Chinese aid, rather than napalm bombs, cluster bombs, cruise missiles or trigger-happy GIs.
Related posts:
(1) The Second Cold War
(2) US Ambassador for Oil
(3) Strategically Important Krygyzstan
(4) China – One Hell of a Market!
(5) US Laying Grounds for Kurdistan?
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