Sounds like what we do.
Yes, but when you do it it’s just business, or for the good of the (ungrateful) world.
When China does the same it is because they want to conquer and rule the world.
China’s most famous man-made waterway is the Grand Canal, much of which was built 1,400 years ago and which stretches more than 1,700 km from the eastern city of Hangzhou to the capital, Beijing. According to the World Bank, part of the ancient channel was the third-busiest of the world’s inland waterways in 2017 by volume of cargo transported—and the only canal in the top six.
China has big plans for new North/South canals connecting the East/West flowing navigable river systems:
First out is the Pinglu Canal:
The Pinglu Canal will be a mere 135km long. Just 6.5km of it will be freshly dug. The rest will use existing river courses:
After completion, ships in the middle and upper reaches of the Xijiang River Basin in Guangxi can go to sea from Qinzhou Port via the Pinglu Canal, which shortens the voyage by more than 560 kilometers compared to going to sea via Guangzhou
The canal will have three chains of locks that will be able to handle vessels of up to 5,000 tonnes. To allow these to pass, several large bridges will be torn down and rebuilt with higher clearance. About 10,000 villagers along the banks will be moved to newly built settlements, says Caixin , a magazine. There are officially protected mangroves growing in the area where the canal will meet the sea, but the government insists that the project will do no serious harm to the environment. A 20-metre-wide bridge will be built just to help animals to cross, including civet cats and red-bellied squirrels.
Just the beginning
The central government sees the Pinglu Canal as the possible start of a much bigger canal-building scheme that could unfold in the coming years as China strives to become a “transportation power” by 2035 (a goal declared three years ago). The idea is to link up China’s main navigable rivers, which flow from west to east, with more north-south canals.
The Grand Canal connects great rivers in the north, including the Yangzi and Yellow rivers. Two new super-long canals, yet to be formally approved, would connect the Yangzi with southern China’s Pearl river basin, into which the Xi flows. A proposed route for one of them, called the Xianggui Canal, would include a stretch of waterway that was built 2,200 years ago and has not been used for shipping since 1975. In total the Xianggui would be about 1,200km long and provide ready access in the south to the Pinglu Canal. The other new waterway being considered, the Zheganyue Canal, would connect with the Grand Canal and be even longer—about 1,900km. State media estimate the total cost for the two at about $65bn.
Source: The Economist: (Behind paywall)
https://www.economist.com/china/2022/09/15/china-has-plans-for-grand-canals
hard not to think China will be shipping nothing to towns full of buildings with no people yet road rail and now canals linking them.
They will certainly be ready for the 3 or 4th or whatever coming of China.
Currently they have shrinking everything except debt.
@KPChief, I guess since you closed the Ukraine one he moved over here…
So now it is combined effort to hunt the rabbit . You really must hate wart growers and cabbage eaters. Let me help You. I have moved also to " container losses" and from time to time to “cartoons” but as I understand it offends You as well . Suggest Sir ,You open the thread " **And whether pigs have wings."
Lucky for the rest of the world, China has collapsed down its own funnel
Gone away like Japan in the 80’s
From the article above:
…Chicago-based economic analyst Houze Song observed Beijing was “quietly abandoning its ambition to become the world’s largest economy” in Xi’s work report at the CCP’s 20th National Congress…
…Song noted the 2035 goal was drafted before China’s 2020 census was released in spring 2021. He told Newsweek : "I believe there are two main reasons behind abandoning the 2035 GDP target. First, Beijing realized that its population will decline more rapidly than anticipated, which makes it more difficult to achieve high growth."…
I’ve commented on China’s impending economic plateau several times in these forums, and noted how it mirrors Japan’s own economic plateau in the 1990s.
The plateau is a combination of declining birthrate + increasing levels of education + lack of immigration.
The USA has the first two factors. Our economy would have plateaued some time ago, if not for immigration.
Xi has speeded up what might have been a Japan style plateau, crashed everything in a very short time.
IMHO they will be struggling to stay in power and keep a lid on social unrest.
Taiwan needs to take over and show them how to run a country and restore traditional Chinese values.
" a senior official at the state planner said "
Its rebounds with huge debt, factories closed and workees locked up at home and now no chips less for makimng calculators and watches.
I’d like to agree with this statement, except that I think it could have been said any time for the last several decades. It always seems like they can’t get more totalitarian and survive another crackdown, but the CCP just keeps on tickin…
Yes it seems so, I guess what we forget is that Mao’s mandate was the ccp has to survive at any cost, even getting rid of a few hundred million people and its all ok.
Eventually everyone wants freedom…lets see
I think the current state of the world today is ideally set up to allow a long-term period of Chinese hegemony. They understand the use of power, violence, and force better than we do. I realize that that probably sounds like a dig at the west, but it’s really more of a dig at China. In no way am I suggesting that the West should get better at totalitarian crackdowns like China. The West has already become far too authoritarian for my taste. At the same time though, I do think that we’re ripe for a Chinese takeover because of the extremes to which they are prepared to go, both with their own people as well as against the rest of us.
Good thing I like lo mein, scallion pancakes, fried rice, and boneless spare ribs I guess?
What is freedom?
To many older Chinese it is being able to fill your stomach every day and to feel that their material situation is improving every year.
To the younger generation it may be wearing branded clothes, having the latest gadgets and going to trendy nightclubs and karaoke bars.
The freedom to spread false rumours and conspiracy theories are not that important though.
you forgot the part where once you have a belly full and the clothes you want then you want to have a say in your destiny when you realise the gov is stopping you from receiving information.
Saying that is back to the old day in China
yes that was possible but China is disappearing down its own black hole at the moment.
Economically its over and back to can we feed the people days.
The CCP’s experiememt with capitilism has spectaculary imploded.
The new emporer is dermined to take china back to something like when he was born just with newer roads and buildings, not sure the population is looking forward to that?
It appears that Bidens new sanctions on chip technology has exposed a huge skills and production gap in china that only has the skills and tools to make chips for calculators and watches.
That is going to have a huge impact on their industries whilst they are already facing a firestorm from closed factories ( wuhan wog shutdowns mixed with a useless vaccination) and a collapsed housing market where massive amounts of debt was sitting.
Everywhere you look there is only bad news for China.
Its clearly a declining power now.
Russia also hell bent on ideology gains at the expense of its economy is also heading down the same black hole.
Source: 26 Years of Growth: Shanghai Then and Now - The Atlantic
1987:
PS> When I was in Shanghai for the first time (1960) there were hardly anything on the Pudong side of the river
Shanghai development. Video: