Building the world’s greatest market

You're either with us, or against us
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_either_with_us,_or_against_us
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_enemy_of_my_enemy_is_my_friend

( in order to match the post title, this is a simplified version.)

In spite of the aging photo turned yellowish fuzzy, it still looks stunning & spectacular
The First Fleet assembles for the King's review on 18 July 1914

http://i.ssimg.cn/guancha/News/2014/04/06/635323757489228003.jpg
more information can be found in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Fleet

almost 100 years later:
Chart Speaks For Itself: http://blog.creaders.net/upfile/20120307/20120307120547_52253.png

NYT's carping comments
Quote:
Putin's Czarist Folly
By ROBERT SERVICEAPRIL 6, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/07/opinion/putins-czarist-folly.html?_r=0
Russia needs to pump out high-technology goods, not just oil and gas. And the rival power it ought to keep in sight is not to the west but to the south.
Since the mid-1970s, China’s rulers have prioritized the diversification of their economy. This would be the minimal requirement to ensure Russia’s status as a Eurasian power. Instead, the Chinese are set to become a superpower while the Russians fall away.

Old Foxes got the point.
Quote:
Russia and China new best chums?
David A. Andelman 6:34 p.m. EDT April 2, 2014
As Obama and EU alienate Putin, he's looking for a friend in other strong places.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/04/02/russia-china-natural-gas-eu-sanctions-putin-column/7224661/
Some European leaders understand the danger of uniting Eurasia's largest resource-rich nation with the world's most populous nation or, at least, the permanent disruption it could cause in both military and economic terms.

In May, Putin is planning a state visit to Beijing. At the top of the agenda — a 30-year deal to redirect Russia's vast gas supplies to China. At least 38 billion cubic meters of gas a year would begin flowing to China by 2018. That's about what all of the European Union, other than Germany, buys from Russia.

A decision by Russia to disentangle itself from unreliable European economic partners would have far more wide-ranging consequences.

Quote:
High-stakes Eurasian Chess Game: Russia’s New Geopolitical Energy Calculus
by F. William Engdahl
http://www.voltairenet.org/article164714.html

The SCO, founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the heads of state of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, has evolved into what might be called Halford Mackinder’s worst nightmare—a vehicle for welding close economic and political cooperation of the key Eurasian land powers independently of the United States.

Quote:
The Grand Chessboard - American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives

Zbigniew Brzezinski. the United States National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981 under the administration of President Jimmy Carter.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Grand_Chessboard

"America is now the only global superpower, and Eurasia is the globe's central arena. Hence, what happens to the distribution of power on the Eurasian continent will be of decisive importance to America's global primacy and to America's historical legacy."

"With warning signs on the horizon across Europe and Asia, any successful American policy must focus on Eurasia as a whole and be guided by a Geo-strategic design."

Who made a Strategic Mistake? (by pushing Putin far away to reach)
Not me, my neighbor in the south is my friend,

(photo source: http://www.guancha.cn/KeLiMiYajiarueluosi/
http://www.guancha.cn/ZhongEYouYi/ )

The defining moment, historical smile
Brussels Belgium 03/31/2014
President XI Jinping meets with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy (right) and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso (left)

source: http://www.guancha.cn/politics/2014_04_01_218515.shtml

Quote:
Transcontinental transportation
DUISBURG, GERMANY - MARCH 29:
http://www.guancha.cn/europe/2014_03_30_217973.shtml
http://www.guancha.cn/XiJinPingFangOu/?ZT

Chinese President Xi Jinxing,
Lord Mayor of the city of Duisburg Soren Link,
Vice Chancellor and Economy and Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel,
Prime Minister of the German State of Northrhine-Westfalia Hannelore Kraft
CEO of Duisburger Hafen AG (Duisport) Erich Staake

attend the arrival of 'Yuxinou' container train at the Logport terminal on March 29, 2014 in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

The train, which is up to 750 meters long, links the Duisburg shipping port directly with the Chinese city of Chongqing, located 10300 kilometers away. the train filled with IT products, took 16 days, routed through China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, arrived the terminal in Duisburg Germany.

Quote:
Building the world’s greatest market
China’s Land Bridge to Turkey creates new Eurasian Geopolitical Potentials
By F. William Engdahl, 28 April 2012 http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article34366.html

Building the world’s greatest market

With the end of the Cold War in 1990 the vast under-developed land space of Eurasia became open again. This space contains some forty percent of total land in the world, much of it prime unspoiled agriculture land; it contains three-fourth of the entire world population, an asset of incalculable worth. It consists of some eighty eight of the world’s countries and three-fourths of known world energy resources as well as every mineral known needed for industrialization. North America as an economic potential, rich as she is, pales by comparison.

The Turkish-China railway discussion is but one part of a vast Chinese strategy to weave a network of inland rail connections across the Eurasian Continent. The aim is to literally create the world’s greatest new economic space and in turn a huge new market for not just China but all Eurasian countries, the Middle East and Western Europe. Direct rail service is faster and cheaper than either ships or trucks, and much cheaper than airplanes. For manufactured Chinese or other Eurasian products the rail land bridge links are creating vast new economic trading activity all along the rail line.

further reading
Silk Road' railways link Europe and Asia
Turkey's Marmaray project: An ambitious plan to link Europe and Asia