From the Associated Press comes word that China is poised to take control of the moribund port of Gwadar, on the Arabian Sea coast of Pakistan, as part of its ongoing campaign to expand its economic/commercial and, potentially, military influence westward.
Two thoughts:
1. It appears that the Pakistani failure, or refusal to complete the Gwadar road, and the consequent economic stifling of the port of Gwadar, provide a clue to the direction that the United States could take to deal with the potential of an obnoxiously-expansive PRC, if the situation in the Pacific/Indian ocean area comes to that. Whether the U.S. national security apparatus has eyes to see, is something that will be revealed in time.
2. It is, to my mind, an interesting throwback to the naval arms race of the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th centuries, that a would-be imperial power is developing a string of ports along (one of) the strategic sea lanes that it proposes to dominate. One wonders if the Chinese are planning to stockpile coal . . . ?
