The issue of "China and Thailand building the Karate Canal" stirred up public opinion in East and Southeast Asia yesterday, prompting Chinese and Thai officials to come forward intensively to clarify. The canal, which has aroused strong interest from all parties, is said to be 102 kilometers long and cost $28 billion. It can allow China to enter the Indian Ocean by sea without passing through the Strait of Malacca. If it is built, the geopolitical landscape in Asia will be changed. Nearly 80% of China's oil imports need to pass through the Strait of Malacca, which is controlled by the United States. This is a tight collar on the heads of many East Asian countries, including China, and is known as the "Malacca dilemma". Both Chinese and Thai officials denied reaching a cooperation agreement on the canal yesterday, but there are also multiple claims that the Chinese and Thai people are still in contact and consultation. Behind the heated discussion about this news is actually a serious examination of the maritime security of major powers by people.
On the 19th, Hong Kong's "Oriental Daily" reported on the Kla Canal, overlooking the Earth and focusing on the "international channel game". The article argues that "with the start of construction of the Nicaragua Canal in Central America last year and the research work on the Kara Canal in Thailand, China has officially entered the era of sea power. The report states that today's world economy is a globalized economy, with 90% of world trade transportation achieved through sea freight. The US Navy once established 16 important maritime channels, including 7 in the Atlantic, 2 in the Pacific, 2 in the Indian Ocean, and 2 in the Mediterranean. The 16 important maritime channels connect the five continents and the four oceans, serving not only as a link for world maritime transportation and global trade, but also as important shipping routes and strategic hubs for naval operations.
The "Six Keys Lock the World" is a metaphor in world geopolitics, which means that there are six most critical maritime transportation channels that determine the energy transportation of the world. They are: Panama Canal, Strait of Gibraltar, Suez Canal, Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Mandela, and Strait of Malacca. It is currently widely believed that the vast majority of these straits are controlled by the United States. The US Navy utilizes its superpower to control these maritime chokepoints, which is equivalent to controlling global sea routes and thus gaining sea power. Dongfang Daily believes that with the excavation of the Kara Canal and the Nicaragua Canal, China's sea power has significantly increased, especially the impact of the Kara Canal on China's strategic deployment, which is much more important than that of the Nicaragua Canal. Because once there is the Krat Canal, the US island chain blockade against China will be in vain, allowing Chinese warships and merchant ships to freely enter and exit the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Singapore will also lose its most important port advantage, and its importance as a strategic pawn of the US will be greatly weakened. Moreover, China can also help Thailand build the China Thailand Railway, and in the future, goods from Yunnan and Guangxi in China can directly reach the Kara Canal through the railway.
Taiwanese scholar Cai Yi believes that the mainland hopes to connect major ports in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, actively strengthen relations with countries along the Indian Ocean coast such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, invest in major ports along the route, strengthen the maintenance of free navigation to Europe and Africa, and ensure smooth maritime Silk Road.
Hong Kong media have warned that the United States may exert pressure on Thailand to obstruct China's construction of the Krat Canal. It is almost customary for the West to question China's participation in large-scale overseas projects, and the construction of the "Two Ocean Railway" from the Atlantic coast of Brazil to the Pacific coast of Peru has triggered warnings from some Americans about China entering the "backyard". In December 2014, the construction of the Nicaragua Grand Canal project, invested and constructed by a private Chinese enterprise, officially began at a cost of approximately 50 billion US dollars. Before and after the start of construction, Western media never stopped questioning the qualifications and necessity of Chinese enterprises, and also claimed that the project would damage the local environment. The planned China Pakistan Economic Corridor will connect Kashgar, Xinjiang, China with Gwadar Port in Pakistan on the Indian Ocean, including the construction of energy and infrastructure projects such as highways, railways, oil and gas, and fiber optic channels. In Western media, this plan is linked to South Asian geopolitical games.
On the 19th, Zhuang Guoguo, a scholar at Xiamen University, told the Global Times that just one Strait of Malacca is no longer sufficient to meet the trend of the world economic center gradually tilting towards East Asia. Adding a carat canal is conducive to the economic development of East Asia. He said, 'Some voices now claim that' China is enthusiastic about digging the Karate Canal, which is used to contain the Malacca Strait controlled by the United States and Singapore, in order to improve China's strategic position. 'It seems that digging the Karate Canal is only a unilateral' hot spot 'by China, which may be hyped up with ulterior motives.'. The economic value of the Kra Canal exists, benefiting not only China but many countries in East Asia
Collaborated and published by the Lianying team, hacked and deleted
