A look at the Chinese grand-plan-1 (a) the Belt and Road ( Archived) (91)

Described as the world's biggest infrastructure project, China is estimated to be investing £115 billion ($150 billion) each year in the Belt and Road scheme, with £692 billion ($900 billion) already spent.


Under the Silk Road plan, China and Pakistan are planning to build $57 billion worth of power plants, port facilities, railway lines and roads in Pakistan.

During a meeting in Bejing last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the plan would be accelerated.

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Kyauk Pyu, Myanmar. Days before the first supertanker carrying 140,000 tons of Chinese-bound crude oil arrived in Myanmar's Kyauk Pyu port, local officials confiscated Nyein Aye's fishing nets.

The 36-year-old fisherman was among hundreds banned from fishing a stretch of water near the entry point for a pipeline that pumps oil 770 kilometers across Myanmar to southwest China and forms a crucial part of Beijing's "Belt and Road" project to deepen its economic links with Asia and beyond.
The Kyauk Pyu Special Economic Zone will cover more than 17 square kilometers. It includes the $7.3 billion deep sea port and a $2.3 billion industrial park, with plans to attract industries such as textiles and oil refining.

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Thailand's prime minister will invoke an executive order to allow construction to start on a $5.5 billion railway project with China, which forms part of Beijing's regional infrastructure drive but has been beset by delays.
The $5.5 billion first phase of the railway will be a 250-kilometer line between Bangkok and the northeastern province of Nakorn Ratchasima.

Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said last month that construction would begin in August or September.

Thailand will largely fund the project and China will provide technical assistance under terms agreed so far.

Including later phases, the project intends to build a 873-kilometer rail line linking Thailand's border with Laos to eastern ports and industrial zones.

China wants to connect its cities to trade centers in Southeast Asia, including Thailand's eastern industrial zones, as part of its "One Belt, One Road" project, while Thailand needs to revamp its aging rail network and boost trade.

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Singapore rocked by open feud in Lee family

Tightly-ruled Singapore was rocked by an unprecedented political drama Wednesday when a feud between the children of the late founding leader Lee Kuan Yew over his legacy burst into the open.

The founder's oldest child, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, came under attack online before dawn from his younger brother Lee Hsien Yang, and younger sister Lee Wei Ling. They accused him of exploiting their father's legacy for his own political agenda, a charge the premier quickly denied.

The pair also claimed that their brother had abused his powers to harass them -- and Hsien Yang said he had decided to leave the country as a result.

The feud had simmered following the death in March 2015 of the elder Lee, who ruled Singapore with an iron hand but transformed the city-state from a relatively poor British colony into one of the world’s wealthiest and most stable societies.

But the quarrel intensified in the small hours of Wednesday with the issuance of the extraordinary statement, which immediately went viral in a country where tough laws against protests and curbs on press freedom have stifled political dissent.

Lee Hsien Loong's wife Ho Ching is the chief executive of state investment firm Temasek Holdings, which had global assets worth Sg$242 billion ($180 billion) as of March 2016.

"We have felt threatened by Hsien Loong’s misuse of his position and influence over the Singapore government and its agencies to drive his personal agenda," read the statement posted online by his siblings.

photo hosting sites

in passing

When power meets power
1.You must give way to another vessel on your starboard. ( right)
2.If you meet head on, both vessels must turn to starboard. ( right)

Seven US sailors are missing and the commanding officer of a US destroyer is among the injured after the warship collided with a merchant ship off the coast of Japan, the US Navy said.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald suffered severe damage to its starboard side.

Most Americans don't know right from left, which is why the US boat steered straight across the bows of a ship 3 times the size.
Now one can see why China want the US out of the China Sea, they are a bloody liability!

was the captains first (very new) command think probably his last, he was medivac to hospital but yeah ship with the gear it'd have on probably should have seen a container ship, which i note suffer bit of damage on its port bow, so maybe better to wait and see just what did happen because technically the destroyer appears likely to be at fault, but i'm finding it hard to figure out how left bow could impact amidships like that. Seems very unprobable...

While the cause of the accident remains a mystery, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said the ACX Crystal had made a sharp turn shortly before the collision.

But that account was later challenged by the ship’s skipper. “(We) were sailing in the same direction as the US destroyer was and then collided,” he was quoted as saying by Jiji Press.

Most of the nearly 300 sailors aboard would have been asleep in their berths at the time of the collision. Two berthing spaces, a machinery room and the radio room were damaged and began taking in water after the destroyer was rammed mid-right side of the ship.

CNN’s national security analyst, John Kirby, reflected the confusion over what had happened under darkness in the sea off Japan in a commentary for the network’s website.
“We do not know whether the warship’s radars were operating sufficiently, he said.

Canada yahoo news, note the language in the following:


YOKOSUKA, Japan — Navy divers found a number of sailors' bodies Sunday aboard the stricken USS Fitzgerald that collided with a container ship in the busy sea off Japan, but a spokeswoman said not all seven missing had been accounted for.

Searchers gained access to the spaces that were damaged during the collision and brought the remains to Naval Hospital Yokosuka where they will be identified, the Navy said in a statement. Seven sailors had been missing, but Yoko Kato, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy in Yokosuka, said not all were recovered.

She didn't say how many were found.

Most of the nearly 300 sailors aboard would have been asleep in their berths at the time of the collision. Two berthing spaces, a machinery room and the radio room were damaged and began taking in water after the destroyer was rammed mid-right side of the ship.

The Japanese coast guard said it received an emergency call from the container ship, the ACX Crystal, reporting the collision around 2:20 a.m. (17:20 GMT Friday). It was questioning crew members of the ACX Crystal, which is operated by the Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen K.K., and was treating the incident as a case of possible professional negligence, said Masayuki Obara, a regional coast guard official.

A good read, however i think someone needs to read :-


And get a grip of what is clearly being played out next door as well as that whats going on within Australia, it is my opinion civil war will likely break out in Australia as Turnbull and Shorten appear intent upon ignoring the will of the Australian people, and appear to my mind are attempting to further disarm the Australian people without regard to subject matter in posr9485724
They do not represent the peoples views on the floor of parliament (which is what they are paid to do) they still appear intent on removing our heads of state and i personally fail to see they have influence in regard to the looming conflict over South China sea, even after Widodo publicly suggested to Lee that he should get out of Singapore. In 2015 Australia passed legislation allowing Singaporeans to set up shop in northern Australia. In my opinion Turnbull and Shorten are so bent on getting rid of the British Constitution that Australia has they have recklessly opened the door to adverse provisions of the Chinese Constitution they have been told about and not had prudent regard to the defence of this country at all.

A good read but :
The South China Sea is fast becoming the world’s most important waterway. As the main corridor between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the sea carries one-third of global maritime trade, worth over $5 trillion, each year, $1.2 trillion of it going to or from the United States. The sea’s large oil and gas reserves and its vast fishing grounds, which produce 12 percent of the world’s annual catch, provide energy and food for Southeast Asia’s 620 million people.

Historically the Chinese have been a people who have always looked far ahead and played 'the long game' whereas US influence upon the west has been to encourage / demand the shortest of short term views ... eat a huge huge breakfast as you might not live until lunch time ( and ignore that obesity will undoubtedly shorten the lifespans of all )