Pay attention world watchers! Today’s under-rated story involves two titans teaming up for a tour promoting trade:
Hu heads to Russia to boost trade
Chinese leader starts Russian tour
Russia’s Vlad ‘the man’ Putin of Russia is hosting Chinese President Hu Jintao for a three-day tour which will certainly revolve around increasing economic links between the two countries. The titanic two largest territories of Asia talking trade! And what kind of trade in particular? Guns and gas! Guns and gas! Guns and gas!
Yeah baby!
China has become the largest purchaser of Russian weaponry in the last decade. Guns, tanks, missiles, you name it. Those Ruskies were always good at building that shit! Of course, this upsets the US because they feel threatened by the growth of Chinese military power, and perhaps more upset because they’re not buying the death toys from us. Missile-envy can be a bitch. But this issue is of lesser consequence for me right now. The other commodity is of more strategic importance.
As you well know, China already produces every damn manufactured trinket and textile on the planet, so they are selling loads of that shit to Russia—and of course they are selling way more of that shit to the US too. But what does Russia have for sale that China needs? First and foremost: fuel. Oil and natural gas to be precise. Russia has shit-tons of the stuff in reserve, and these fossil fuels are almost solely responsible for Russia economic growth out of the gutter for the last decade. As China continues to expand, they need more fuel to keep the ball rolling, and Russia has it!
Why is this important for understanding your Plaid Planet? Russia is re-gaining its position as a world power player precisely because they are positioning themselves as the energy broker for the whole damn Eurasian continent. Russia already supplies the EU (European Union) with the majority of their fossil fuel needs: a fact which has many folks in Europe a bit worried. They are heavily reliant on Russia for energy, which puts Russia in a position of bargaining power, and perhaps outright political power if something crazy like a oil embargo were to occur out of the Middle East (Yeah, I know how crazy is that idea? That would never ever ever happen would it? Oops: look into 1973 oil embargo)
And now let’s make you smarter: the Plaid Avenger knows how this shit is going down in real life man! Vlad ‘the Man’ Putin is all about strengthening ties with China, specifically by selling them more fuel. Do you see the position this puts Russia in? Vlad sure does! If Russia gets the Chinese addicted to their gas and oil, just like Europe already is, then Russia is essentially the pimp daddy for all the energy-whores of Eurasia. They will literally be making money coming and going, on both sides of the continent. Which means they can pit consumers against each other in a bidding war and, much more importantly, can use this energy addiction as a source of political capital across the continent.
What do I mean by this? What happens if the China pisses off Russia? They can choose to sell more oil to the EU for cheaper. What happens if the EU or a single European country pisses off Russia? They could turn the oil spigots completely off– By the way, that actually already occurred last winter in Belarus. Lesson: Don’t piss off the bear!
Man, everybody will be kissing Russian ass…just to get that Russian gas.
Hmmmmm…me thinks a fossil fuel rhyme just occurred.
The Plaid Avenger has struck again!
Pay attention world watchers! Today’s under-rated story involves two titans teaming up for a tour promoting trade:
March 26th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Professor Boyer love the webpage as an alum who took both east asian geography and world regions I am glad to be able to follow your class through a forum that is quicker and easier to understand than navigating various webpages. I’ve enjoyed the posts so far and look forward to future posts.
March 26th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Wow, this is a big development for these two countries and it has pretty big implications for the U.S. It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out including who gets pissed off at whom and what happens. Very interesting post. Partying like Putin takes on a whole new meaning now. Keep the good posts a coming.
Rock on Plaid Avenger
March 27th, 2007 at 7:23 am
This is unrelated to Hu but I had a question about the Iran confrontation with the British sailors. If Britain proves they were in Iraqi waters and Iran puts them on trial or something similar, what is NATO’s response? Where is the line on what is an attack against a NATO country? Thanks for the great website.
March 27th, 2007 at 8:16 am
This exact same scenario occurred in 2004 with the military personnel eventually being released. It is quite possible that Iran is merely holding onto them to bargain for the good-sized number of Iranian personnel alleged to be diplomatic corps which have been detained by US forces in Iraq. If they are diplomatic corps, then their seizure was illegal. All the same, the more you threaten and cajole, what other kind of response can you expect from the Iranians? Why, just today there’s naval manuveurs occuring off their coast!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17810017/
Wouldn’t you be a bit paranoid?
As for NATO, no one other than the US seems particularly interested in engaging in such a likely debacle as attacking Iran. If the soldiers were violating Iranian sovereignty, it is an easily resolvable issue (see above for past instance of same thing occurring). But again, given, the firebrand campaign against Iran, they’re going to expect more than before in return.
March 28th, 2007 at 5:34 am
I understand why Iran is mad but I am asking more basically about article 5 of NATO. Is it just an attack on one of their homelands or their people too. The BBC said the UK just released information saying the soldiers were in Iraqi waters and that they were mandated by the UN, so if this is all true, is abduction of them an attack on Britain’s sovereignty? So where is the line drawn on whether it is an attack against the country?
March 28th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
They weren’t attacked. At least not anymore than the Iranian personnel abducted in Iraq were which is also, I believe, against international law, last time I checked.