China, a 'Black Hole' Sucking in the World's Natural Resources

While the USA has obsessed with the "Floating Yuan vs a Dollar pegged Yuan", China's economic power expansion strategies has made it a huge “black hole” sucking in the worlds natural resources.

Think of it, after nearly 10 years of pressure on China to let the Yuan increase in value, instead of letting it fall with the dollar, China finally let it appreciate .5 percent, making the total increase to 1 % since last June. The United States has followed a decade long policy of allowing its currency to drop in value, hoping that would fuel economic growth. But China is following a more powerful concept. Invest, buy, or control the “hard” resources of the world, and finesse the USA on “currency issues.”

We are ignoring Chinese raw commodity import policies. I have witnessed this first hand, in Nepal, Cambodia, Mongolia, Ecuador, and even in the “Autonomous Regions”.

China is buying resources all over the world and as we reported 18 months ago, has become a resource hog, that in some ways distorts markets, and encourages corruption.

A few examples:

In Cambodia it is against the law to “log” the old hard wood forests, but if you are on the back roads near Sean Reap, after dark traffic fills up with “illegal” logging trucks delivering ill gotten wood to Phnom Penh, on the way to China.

In Mongolia, China has long made a concerted effort to gain control of Mongolian oil, copper, and coal resources. Much of Mongolia's coal is the high-quality "coking" variety vital to steel production which can be produced cheaply, for as little as $15 per ton. China is the world’s largest user of environmentally unfriendly “dirty” coal. But the nation is growing so rapidly, it now produces over half of the steel in the world, so it will continue to be the world’s largest polluter. This is made worse because three quarters of China’s electricity is powered by coal fired stations.

In Kazakhstan, China is a major owner of oil fields.

In Kyrgyzstan, China continues to show interest in natural resources and officials are easily bribed or “influenced” .

Both China and Russian jealously lust for the oil, wood, coal and other resources of Central Asia.

In Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, China has, with cooperation with Russia, financed new pipelines along a general route similar to the old Silk Road.

Russia, is now a major source of oil for China, with the two nations jointly developing a new pipeline from Siberia to the Pacific by way of China, of course. Chinese oil imports will hit 12.5m barrels per day by 2020, up from 4m last year. Russia, is drifting away from Western oil and gas markets, at the consternation of Western Europe.

China’s reach includes Latin America, and nations such as Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico, Peru and Columbia find themselves “invaded” and courted by Chinese visitors, businesses, and buyers of natural resources. In some cases China is making financing and grants available for economic development in trade for access to natural resources of these nations.

But even with currency trading, China is out maneuvering the USA. China has just signed a deal with Russia to do extensive trading in Rubles and Yuan's in their trading, and ignoring the once all powerful dollar. It is interesting, the Islamic nations have worked to “eliminate use of the dollar”, nations such as Venezuela, Korea, Iran have tried the same tactic, and now China and Russia are in the game.

As we have reported many times over the past 10 years, China has emerged as a world power, that will change the way we all live. VIPs and leaders will be well advised to monitor these trends. Access and control of natural resources continue to have global implications, and history shows, wars, and economic control.