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Just like America, China is building a multi-ethnic empire in the west
Parag Khanna, Guardian
Tibet and Xinjiang have the misfortune of having resources the Asian giant wants, and being on the path to resources it needs
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It is difficult to find a westerner who does not intuitively support the idea of a free Tibet. But would Americans ever let go of Texas or California? For China, the Anglo-Russian great game for control of central Asia was neither inconclusive nor fruitless, something that cannot be said for Russia or Britain. Indeed, China was the big winner.
… Both Tibet and Xinjiang have the misfortune of possessing resources China wants and of being situated on the path to resources China needs: Tibet has vast amounts of timber, uranium and gold, and the two territories constitute China’s geographic gateway for trade flow outward – and energy flow inward – with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Decades of labour by the army and swarms of workers have paved the way for unchallenged Chinese dominance. The high-altitude train linking Shanghai and Lhasa that began service in 2006 represents not the beginning of Chinese hegemony, but its culmination.
Tibet and Xinjiang today set the stage for the birth of a multi-ethnic empire in ways that resemble nothing so much as America’s frontier expansion nearly two centuries ago. Chinese think about their mission civilatrice much as American settlers did: they are bringing development and modernity. Asiatic, Buddhist Tibetans and Turkic, Muslim Uighurs are being lifted out of the third world – whether they like it or not.
… An even greater prize than Tibet is the far larger and more populous Xinjiang, with its oil deposits, deserts and mountains.
… Ironically, China’s near absolute sense of security over both provinces is the greatest hope for a Chinese glasnost: China no longer faces any meaningful resistance to its rule and so some day may lighten up.
An edited extract from Parag Khanna’s book The Second World: Empires and Influences in the New Global Order, which will be published next week
(25 March 2008)
Michael Richardson at The Straits Times gives more background, adding:
Chinese government geologists reported last year that they had found huge deposits of copper, lead, zinc and iron ore in Tibet – minerals that China must now import on a large scale. In addition, Tibet is the source and store of much of China’s fresh water. This makes China the dominant headwater power in Eurasia, giving it control over the upper reaches of some of the great rivers that flow into South and South-east Asia. The Brahmaputra, Mekong and Salween rivers all start in the glaciers and snow-fed highlands on the ‘roof of the world’, the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.
China, short of both electricity and water, is in the midst of a massive dam-building programme.
Chinese fuel shortages spreading to big cities
Elaine Kurtenbach, Associated Press
China’s leaders are facing renewed pressure over shortfalls in diesel fuel and gasoline, with lines growing at filling stations in major cities Monday as the gap widens between international crude oil and centrally controlled fuel prices.
The shortages, first reported in southern and inland China, appeared to be spreading to wealthier areas in the north and east as filling stations struggled to get shipments from refiners. Four stations contacted Monday in Shanghai said their daily diesel shipments had not yet arrived.
(24 March 2008)
