Imagine a world where 1.5 billion people are forced to live in a self-created desert, China is just that.
Beijing is a dangerously polluted city surrounded by agricultural land that has turned to dust. In 2012, the World Health Organization reported over 1 million Chinese deaths due to air pollution. At times, air pollution has been so bad that it has been called an aeropocalypse. PM (particulate matter) levels are frequently recorded reaching all-time highs affecting 800 million people. PM relates to the term for a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. Some particles, such as dust, dirt, soot or smoke, are large enough or dark enough to be seen with the naked eye, others just as harmful cannot be seen.
The Gobi desert, once the protector of the revered and fortified Chinese empire. Now it has gone from protector to invader. 500,000 miles of northern China and southern Mongolia are now a barren wasteland, consisting only of sand. Once fertile land is now arid dust bowls that cover entire areas of China. The Gobi Desert is the fastest growing desert on earth each year transforming 2,250 miles (approx. 3,621 km) of grassland into sandy desert.
These sands are whipped by winds that pollute more than 1 million square miles and are then combined with industrial pollution. Beijing’s air quality index recently peaked at 620, a rating classified as ‘beyond index’. To put the US government label above 200 as very unhealthy in perspective, above 301 to 500 is classified as dangerous.
Desertification is a type of land degradation in which previously fertile soil is transformed into barren land. Effectively, it is the process of areas becoming deserts, and the causes are both man-made and climate-induced. China’s frenzied development drives in the 20th century devastated the country’s timber resources, and this deforestation along with overgrazing, wind erosion, and depletion of water resources accelerated desertification in the second half of the century.
I won’t stop at this point, but China’s military aspirations are rapidly materializing. The South China Sea is a cover point. Add all this up and consider China’s use of the Belt and Road Scheme, then wonder begins to turn into suspicion.
Let’s look at the Chinese government guidelines which, as we all know, are set in stone. China’s State Council has established three rules or categories for overseas investment, what Chinese companies can and cannot buy: “prohibited”, “restricted” and “encouraged”. Casinos and military technology are banned, while restrictions include hotel and property development. But investment in agriculture and infrastructure is encouraged. Then consider using the new Silk Road.
Headline 1. China will become the largest foreign owner of Australian farmland.
In 1850, the Chinese came in droves in search of riches from the new gold rush. Then they stayed on, employed to help create some of the most fertile farms in the world. Now they’re back in another gold rush form: They’re buying farms like Cubbie Station in Queensland, the Van Diemen’s Land Company dairy operation in Tasmania, Nicoletti Farms in Western Australia, and a stake in the sprawling S Kidman & Co. cattle empire. they are just some well-known agricultural businesses that are now fully or partially in Chinese hands. In recent years, Chinese investors have embarked on an unprecedented buying spree of Australian farmland. According to the latest Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land, Chinese ownership of Australian agricultural land has increased tenfold in the last year alone. They now control 14.4 million hectares. China is poised to overtake the UK as the largest foreign owner of Australian farmland, a mantle that dates back to at least the last gold rush. The buying spree comes with the blessing of the Chinese government even at a time when the Chinese government is concerned about the flow of capital out of China.
Headline 2. China’s Belt and Road scheme owns ports around the world
What China is gaining from buying the world’s ports China, through its state-owned maritime and shipping companies, has historically bought ports all over the world. Now, under his 21st century Maritime Silk Road (MSR), the maritime part of his Belt and Road initiative matters, his ambitions are taking shape. Almost daily there is news about the acquisition of a new port. Ports in Greece, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Africa and Australia have already been acquired.
Headline 3. Control of Western infrastructure, energy, telecommunications, etc.
Huawei has the ability to spy on and access the most sensitive information that flows freely through networks around the world. Perhaps this is all innocent, but given its size, given the abject destruction of the lands. They are clearly concerned about the welfare of their citizens.
A good friend once told me that the belt scheme is good in theory, but in practice it is a way for China to leave China. Think about it! For my part, I suspect his intentions.
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