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China intends to invest $46 billion in infrastructure links to Pakistan:
The focus of spending is on building a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) - a network of roads, railway and pipelines between the long-time allies. They will run some 3,000km (1,865 miles) from Gwadar in Pakistan to China's western Xinjiang region.
The projects will give China direct access to the Indian Ocean and beyond. This marks a major advance in China's plans to boost its economic influence in Central and South Asia, correspondents say, and far exceeds US spending in Pakistan.
[...] Some $15.5bn worth of coal, wind, solar and hydro energy projects will come online by 2017 and add 10,400 megawatts of energy to Pakistan's national grid, according to officials. A $44m optical fibre cable between the two countries is also due to be built.
The Great Game lives. Different players, same game. Equally large implications. Diplomacy game geeks, awake! Who are the players, and what's the play?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fritsd on Monday April 20 2015, @08:26PM
For those who dont know, china uses the most coal on the planet.
I dunno.. I don't doubt what you say but I wonder what China's government wants.
Weird anecdote (has a tech angle though): I came across an article somewhere that said a Chinese app had won a prize for best Android app. It was made by an astronomer from a university in Beijing (can't recall). The app made it possible to use an Android camera phone, and put it outside at night, and, using long-term exposure and probably some rotation of the exposed pictures, *see the stars as if you could go outside your house and look up and actually see the stars*.
How many kids grow up in Beijing who have never seen the stars, or even the other end of Tiananmen square, because the smog is so thick it can be cut in blocks and sold?
So, there might be a slow groundswell of environmental awareness in China, "let's not burn all the coal in the world, we need to breathe too!". I've never been there, I can't be sure, but this is my opinion.
If China has anarchy and revolution, they can't build out the necessary wind, solar and hydro infrastructure to transition their society. So maybe they need coal gasification as an intermediate solution. But I like to believe that they are aware that the environment exists and is something they need to live in, if they want the "Kingdom of the Middle" to endure five more centuries, or even one.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday April 21 2015, @05:44AM
It's actually not too bad in the "golden autumn." It's the one season in Beijing that's quite clear, and it is genuinely lovely. You can see the stars then. A lot of kids in Beijing are born to parents who are from the countryside, so they usually get to travel back to the home villages during Chinese New Year. Not far outside Beijing city limits the stars are quite visible. Some of the best star gazing I've ever done was while camping on top of the 15th guard tower at the Simatai stretch of the Great Wall. Ironically enough, we had more than enough fuel for our campfire burning the wooden chopsticks and other rubbish left behind by the Chinese day trippers, so your general point about Chinese respect for the environment is pretty accurate.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday April 21 2015, @07:45AM
Go look at the really cheap plastic shit like bins in your local dollar stores, sure many say "Made in China" but more and more are saying "Product of Malaysia". As The Chinese get tired of their land and air being poisoned and working like slaves for a buck a day? The corps just move on to the next country they can exploit.
After all as long as the CEOs can live in a Mansion in a clean valley and drink purified water why should they care how much of the third world they poison? BTW if you don't think they'll fuck their own country for a buck go by a superfund site sometime and see how huge a toxic waste dump once beautiful land can become.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.