China to bypass Malacca Strait by Kra Isthmus Canal in Thailand

[Tomtomtom69]

Building of this canal has been talked about since 1677

Who will pay for it ?

China will, so long as they can build it with their own cheap labour and then operate it and collect the fees for the next 50 years.

In the end of little financial benefit to Thailand other than a small share of the fees and maybe China will buy some more rice..

But a very good idea so long as Thailand's ships can use it for free

I don't think the Thais will allow Chinese laborers to work inside Thailand. It would contravene the country's labor laws and local Thais would be up in arms about these foreigners stealing their jobs. Low skilled foreign labor in Thailand is for Burmese, Lao and Cambodians only, not Chinese or other foreigners. Similarly, for the more skilled labor that this project would require, the usual 4-1 Thai-foreigner ratio would be needed.

In any case, this idea is never going to see the light of day - too many political debacles in Thailand and the whole project would be too expensive and too complicated logistically. Think of all the communities destroyed and massive bridges needed to link the Malay peninsula with the rest of Thailand and Asia for that matter? This article is another example of a dumb, overly optimistic Chinese opinion piece where a Chinese writer thinks he/she is speaking for the rest of the region. It doesn't look like Thailand has even been informed of this ridiculous proposal.

The Dawei deep sea port project in Myanmar makes much more sense. Build good infrastructure to link western China and Thailand with Myanmar and that's all that will be needed.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Tomtomtom69

[Tomtomtom69]

The Thai's aren’t going to let this happen and nor will the Americans ( unless their financing it), for same reason they don't want a connecting high speed train network to China or a highway connecting Thailand to China via Laos. China has been pushing these things for years....and they always get knocked back by the Thai's.

I think it’s pretty smart on behalf of the Thais. As soon as the doors open China has direct access to South East Asia which increases its political might, economic opportunity and military stretch. Same applies for Kra Isthmus Canal. No doubt the States are somewhere in the back ground probably advising the Thai Government.

A project of this scale would be incredibly expensive, time consuming and would cut off the whole rest of southern Thailand, peninsular Malaysia and Singapore from the rest of Asia north of it. I don't think the Chinese estimate of a price tag of only 25-30 billion US dollars is realistic either...come on, that's pocket change. More like 250-300 billion US dollars.

In any case, this project won't see the light of day. Perhaps the high speed rail link will come through one day...perhaps.

[espinoza]

I suggest that Thailand do the projecting, construction and capital funding by themselves. Do not the Chinese get any of their fingers in there also. The can pay toll for bringing their stuff through the canal, as anybody ells. Good Idea!

[ExpatOilWorker]

First an alternative to the Panama canal in Nicaragua and now this? It will NEVER happen!

[JAG]

There have now been some three posts suggesting that Thaksin is behind this scheme. Three posts - that makes it a FACT!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[build6]

This gets reheated every 15 years and then… then nothing happens for the next 15 years.

I think I still have the files done in 1999 for this… Then lobbying by Singapore started, pockets were filled up, and it all went quiet again.

No doubt the same will happen this time.

They probably dust off the plans and make an announcement every time they feel they need a fresh infusion of funds from Singapore

[tonbridgebrit]

Right, so little Singapore is against this canal, they don't want this project to start.

Singaporeans are actually a bunch of Chinese living on an island off Malaysia. So they want to carry on having Chinese ships pass their island, and they don't want to lose the shipping fees IF this project goes ahead ? Are we suppose to cheer on the Singaporeans when they block this project ??

This project, supposedly, will be done using Chinese money. So it might not make financial sense ? Are we suppose to be concerned about the Chinese investors not getting a good return on their money ??

Oh, this canal will benefit mainly Chinese ships, it will cut their travelling time. It's not going to really benefit ships from Europe ? Is that why some of us are against this canal being built ??

As for Thaksin, having a bit of the action on this canal being built. Okay, let's ban him from being part of this. We'ill just let some other Thais put their money into this. These Thais will look the same as the Singaporeans, look the same as Thaksin, look the same as the Chinese people who are financing this ! We're assuming this project does actually take off.

[Thai at Heart]

DidntThailand want to build a port in Myanmar to transport all this stuff from China coming by rail?

That was Thaksin's idea.

Ah I see.

So this would be surtheps retirement thank you for services rendered.....

[Publicus]

Most posts in the meandering thread poke around here and there at this and that, touching on some relevant aspects of the canal but so far not addressing it in its overall whole. So let me try a somewhat coherent broad sweep.

Thaksin and everyone supporting him want the canal while Suthep and everyone supporting him are against the canal. Everyone on either side, no matter where they sit.

This includes every institution of Thai society and national government that one can think of. Thaksin and his people are for "hard energy" and megaproject infrastructure development involving big bucks projects. Suthep and his backers, right on up into the Thai deep state, want "soft energy" and modest infrastructure development.

The bottom line here is however that neither Suthep nor his backers, to include the generals, want any part of Thailand severed. The generals see Thaksin walking around waving a butcher's knife, while the ammart and the deep state see Thaksin walking about with a money sack.

The Kra Canal project divided the Thai elites immediately after square face became PM and in 2001 established the National Committee for the Study of the Kra Canal. The Committee still exists but in name only, as back then the ammart and the Thai deep state reacted ferociously against it, forcing Thaksin to sideline the Committee and its purposes.

Still, East Asia, SE Asia, South Asia, need infrastructure big time and this project is but one of many needed. The Chinese are in fact basing their construction designs and plans on the 1973 study by the U.S. engineering firm TAMS (Tippets Abbett McCarthy Stratton).

Currently 60,000 ships traverse the Strait of Malacca annually, a rate of one ship entering either entrance every 3.6 minutes. Current projections are that, by 2020 and even with a new canal, 440,000 ships will use the Strait so nobody knows or understands what Singapore is hollering about. The 1946 Thai treaty with the UK referenced in this thread was mutually suspended in 1954.

The CIA has no objections to China constructing a Kra Canal. The Pentagon wants U.S. Marines and Special Forces on fast boats in the Strait to combat piracy and terrorism while also being available as a first responder to a humanitarian emergency. India anyway is constructing new giant naval and air bases on the Andaman Islands at the north end of the Strait and off west coast SE Asia.

The Boyz in Beijing have been given a clear path to this canal by the US and Japan, so they will bang as many heads down here as they need to in order to get this started, going, finished. Bet on it.

http://schillerinstitute.org/conf-iclc/2013/1102_la/tanapura.html

http://www.oocities.org/econ_10330/Kra_canal.html

[Publicus]

DidntThailand want to build a port in Myanmar to transport all this stuff from China coming by rail?

That was Thaksin's idea.

Ah I see.

So this would be surtheps retirement thank you for services rendered.....

Yes, it was Thaksin's idea but it got pretty difficult to manage from afar and as several events developed in Thailand and in Myanmar over several years, it fell by the proverbial wayside.

It was also significant that the US and Japan formed a joint company after China basically got kicked out of Myanmay and moved in to take over the project entirely and completely.

The snags for Thaksin began when the road construction from Kanchanaburi to the port, which was to run through a huge mosquito swamp, got sunk and stuck. That wuz the beginning of the end of Thaksin's Thailand in Myanmar port project.

I wonder how his Africa mines are doing.

[I Like Thai]

It will never work, in the space of a few weeks, it will be so full of river boats that the ships will not be able to fit through.

[asiamaster]

it's just part of China's " two oceans strategy". They always wanted and will want to have direct access to both the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Most certainly -in the long run- they don't want to have to sail their ships between two Muslim countries (Malaysia & Indonesia).

[bkkjames]

..the development of transport and logistics is central to Thailand';s economic future. This project would be great

we do agree on something PR, amazing indeed.

Singapore will do everything possible to ensure this long talked about canal never happens.

[Publicus]

it's just part of China's " two oceans strategy". They always wanted and will want to have direct access to both the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Most certainly -in the long run- they don't want to have to sail their ships between two Muslim countries (Malaysia & Indonesia).

You and I and others know it so there's no question governments know it. Some more good news is that Beijing's "two oceans strategy" remains far from a reality and that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) may as well be paddling canoes.

PLAN's best direct access route to the open western Pacific, the Miyako Strait, is alas controlled by Japan. To access the western Pacific, the PLAN still has to sail north up between Russia and Japan, then around northernmost Japan to go south down the length of Japan. In other words, to access the western Pacific during hostilities or tensions, the PLAN has to steam north to go south instead of moving in a straight line east. Translation: a day late and a dollar short.

Down on the other side,in Thailand and at Kra, the Andaman Islands are almost literally meters away from the Indian Ocean opening of each of the finalist two locations of the canal (options A2 or A5). India is completing construction on the Andamans of two huge bases, one naval and the other for the air force.

During the past three years Japan has shifted significant forces from its north opposite Russia and North Korea to its south to respond to Beijing's recent and ever escalating aggressions. Miyako and neighboring islands have been reinforced by new intelligence technology and armaments. India the past few years has also been shifting its military resources east, away from historical rival Pakistan to the Andaman Islands and to link with Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, all in response to territorial provocations and aggressions by Beijing against India itself and regional neighbors.

The Kra canal is a vitally needed megaproject of critically new maritime infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific Strategic Region and in respect of the Global Maritime Commons under the UN Convention on the International Law of the Sea, so no government of significance is opposing it, Certainly no one in Asean opposes it, which puts the spotlight on Thailand and its ongoing and exclusively inward obsessions.

The Ammart, all of their allies in government institutions and the Thailand deep state are opposed, Thaksin, new corporate eiltes and the PTP government are in favor. The Boyz in Beijing are going to build this canal come hell or high water. So this gets interestinger and interestinger, to borrow the unique observation of a distinguished other. .

[USNret]

If corrupt politicians can be enriched by this project, it will be approved & attempted. It will not be completed, but that won't stop anyone from lining their pockets.

[Scarpolo]

it's just part of China's " two oceans strategy". They always wanted and will want to have direct access to both the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Most certainly -in the long run- they don't want to have to sail their ships between two Muslim countries (Malaysia & Indonesia).

You and I and others know it so there's no question governments know it. Some more good news is that Beijing's "two oceans strategy" remains far from a reality and that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) may as well be paddling canoes.

PLAN's best direct access route to the open western Pacific, the Miyako Strait, is alas controlled by Japan. To access the western Pacific, the PLAN still has to sail north up between Russia and Japan, then around northernmost Japan to go south down the length of Japan. In other words, to access the western Pacific during hostilities or tensions, the PLAN has to steam north to go south instead of moving in a straight line east. Translation: a day late and a dollar short.

Down on the other side,in Thailand and at Kra, the Andaman Islands are almost literally meters away from the Indian Ocean opening of each of the finalist two locations of the canal (options A2 or A5). India is completing construction on the Andamans of two huge bases, one naval and the other for the air force.

During the past three years Japan has shifted significant forces from its north opposite Russia and North Korea to its south to respond to Beijing's recent and ever escalating aggressions. Miyako and neighboring islands have been reinforced by new intelligence technology and armaments. India the past few years has also been shifting its military resources east, away from historical rival Pakistan to the Andaman Islands and to link with Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, all in response to territorial provocations and aggressions by Beijing against India itself and regional neighbors.

The Kra canal is a vitally needed megaproject of critically new maritime infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific Strategic Region and in respect of the Global Maritime Commons under the UN Convention on the International Law of the Sea, so no government of significance is opposing it, Certainly no one in Asean opposes it, which puts the spotlight on Thailand and its ongoing and exclusively inward obsessions.

The Ammart, all of their allies in government institutions and the Thailand deep state are opposed, Thaksin, new corporate eiltes and the PTP government are in favor. The Boyz in Beijing are going to build this canal come hell or high water. So this gets interestinger and interestinger, to borrow the unique observation of a distinguished other. .

China will soon have the most modern and deadly Navy

[Publicus]

it's just part of China's " two oceans strategy". They always wanted and will want to have direct access to both the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Most certainly -in the long run- they don't want to have to sail their ships between two Muslim countries (Malaysia & Indonesia).

You and I and others know it so there's no question governments know it. Some more good news is that Beijing's "two oceans strategy" remains far from a reality and that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) may as well be paddling canoes.

PLAN's best direct access route to the open western Pacific, the Miyako Strait, is alas controlled by Japan. To access the western Pacific, the PLAN still has to sail north up between Russia and Japan, then around northernmost Japan to go south down the length of Japan. In other words, to access the western Pacific during hostilities or tensions, the PLAN has to steam north to go south instead of moving in a straight line east. Translation: a day late and a dollar short.

Down on the other side,in Thailand and at Kra, the Andaman Islands are almost literally meters away from the Indian Ocean opening of each of the finalist two locations of the canal (options A2 or A5). India is completing construction on the Andamans of two huge bases, one naval and the other for the air force.

During the past three years Japan has shifted significant forces from its north opposite Russia and North Korea to its south to respond to Beijing's recent and ever escalating aggressions. Miyako and neighboring islands have been reinforced by new intelligence technology and armaments. India the past few years has also been shifting its military resources east, away from historical rival Pakistan to the Andaman Islands and to link with Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, all in response to territorial provocations and aggressions by Beijing against India itself and regional neighbors.

The Kra canal is a vitally needed megaproject of critically new maritime infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific Strategic Region and in respect of the Global Maritime Commons under the UN Convention on the International Law of the Sea, so no government of significance is opposing it, Certainly no one in Asean opposes it, which puts the spotlight on Thailand and its ongoing and exclusively inward obsessions.

The Ammart, all of their allies in government institutions and the Thailand deep state are opposed, Thaksin, new corporate eiltes and the PTP government are in favor. The Boyz in Beijing are going to build this canal come hell or high water. So this gets interestinger and interestinger, to borrow the unique observation of a distinguished other. .

China will soon have the most modern and deadly Navy

No it won't.

The CCP has some new high tech warships but it's still a long way off having a navy that can defeat Japan, despite the fact the PLANavy is superior to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in total tonnage and number of ships. The assessment of the US Naval War College analysts and of the Nato military council is that Japan's forces are better led, better trained, better equipped and of sufficiently higher overall quality as to more than compensate for the PLAN's quantity.

The United States has developed the new operational doctrine of Air-Sea Battle Strike Groups that can stand off the PRC shores out of range while massively penetrating deep into the mainland CCP-PRC to destroy its missile offensive capabilities. Oh yeah, I almost forgot that the PLAN nuclear submarines still make more noise than a cement grinder. The CCP is still working on that, so I suppose there's hope there.

If you're gonna say the US is broke and can't afford it, or hasn't the will, or underestimates its enemy, or that the US Navy can't counter the CCP's new carrier killer missiles, or anything like the foregoing, you'd be wasting your breath.

Last July, just the make the point, the NSA and the US Cybercommand took out the entire internet and cyber systems of all of the mainland CCP-PRC. All cyber operations of the CCP-PRC mainland were knocked out for five hours before the first resumptions of internet and cybernetic services and operation were allowed to be restored..

The Boyz in Beijing of course told their population the internet and cyber blackouts were only a matter of isolated instances due to technical difficulties occurring at foreign stations, but that the technology and cyber masterminds of the CCP cadre were able to overcome. The takedown of the CCP-PRC internet and cyber systems by NSA and US Cybercommand was also a message to the Boyz in Beijing about cyber and space warfare for which the CCP also has been feverishly preparing.

[moe666]

Find out who owns the land around the proposed area then you will know.

[rickirs]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Building of this canal has been talked about since 1677

Who will pay for it ?

China will, so long as they can build it with their own cheap labour and then operate it and collect the fees for the next 50 years.

In the end of little financial benefit to Thailand other than a small share of the fees and maybe China will buy some more rice..

But a very good idea so long as Thailand's ships can use it for free

A Chinese contractor has operated the Panama Canal after the Panama Canal Authority took over adminstration of the canal in 1999 without incident. Canal fees are taxed by Panama and is the country's main source of revenues. As a side note, Panama now has a third generation Chinese population whose native language is mostly spanish.

A Chinese-financed canal benefits Thailand. If only Chinese labor must be used to build the canal (which I doubt can be mandated), their wages will also generate tax revenue in addition to any company payroll taxes and other national taxes. Thai suppliers and contractors might have priority in the canal construction that would further benefit the Thai economy. There would be no reason to exempt Thailand shippers from canal fees and deprive Thailand the revenue they would generate - they have the choice to avoid the canal.

[zydeco]

it's just part of China's " two oceans strategy". They always wanted and will want to have direct access to both the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Most certainly -in the long run- they don't want to have to sail their ships between two Muslim countries (Malaysia & Indonesia).

You and I and others know it so there's no question governments know it. Some more good news is that Beijing's "two oceans strategy" remains far from a reality and that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) may as well be paddling canoes.

PLAN's best direct access route to the open western Pacific, the Miyako Strait, is alas controlled by Japan. To access the western Pacific, the PLAN still has to sail north up between Russia and Japan, then around northernmost Japan to go south down the length of Japan. In other words, to access the western Pacific during hostilities or tensions, the PLAN has to steam north to go south instead of moving in a straight line east. Translation: a day late and a dollar short.

Down on the other side,in Thailand and at Kra, the Andaman Islands are almost literally meters away from the Indian Ocean opening of each of the finalist two locations of the canal (options A2 or A5). India is completing construction on the Andamans of two huge bases, one naval and the other for the air force.

During the past three years Japan has shifted significant forces from its north opposite Russia and North Korea to its south to respond to Beijing's recent and ever escalating aggressions. Miyako and neighboring islands have been reinforced by new intelligence technology and armaments. India the past few years has also been shifting its military resources east, away from historical rival Pakistan to the Andaman Islands and to link with Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, all in response to territorial provocations and aggressions by Beijing against India itself and regional neighbors.

The Kra canal is a vitally needed megaproject of critically new maritime infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific Strategic Region and in respect of the Global Maritime Commons under the UN Convention on the International Law of the Sea, so no government of significance is opposing it, Certainly no one in Asean opposes it, which puts the spotlight on Thailand and its ongoing and exclusively inward obsessions.

The Ammart, all of their allies in government institutions and the Thailand deep state are opposed, Thaksin, new corporate eiltes and the PTP government are in favor. The Boyz in Beijing are going to build this canal come hell or high water. So this gets interestinger and interestinger, to borrow the unique observation of a distinguished other. .

Oh, dear. Somebody had to go and mention China in the news again.

[55Jay]

it's just part of China's " two oceans strategy". They always wanted and will want to have direct access to both the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Most certainly -in the long run- they don't want to have to sail their ships between two Muslim countries (Malaysia & Indonesia).

You and I and others know it so there's no question governments know it. Some more good news is that Beijing's "two oceans strategy" remains far from a reality and that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) may as well be paddling canoes.

PLAN's best direct access route to the open western Pacific, the Miyako Strait, is alas controlled by Japan. To access the western Pacific, the PLAN still has to sail north up between Russia and Japan, then around northernmost Japan to go south down the length of Japan. In other words, to access the western Pacific during hostilities or tensions, the PLAN has to steam north to go south instead of moving in a straight line east. Translation: a day late and a dollar short.

Down on the other side,in Thailand and at Kra, the Andaman Islands are almost literally meters away from the Indian Ocean opening of each of the finalist two locations of the canal (options A2 or A5). India is completing construction on the Andamans of two huge bases, one naval and the other for the air force.

During the past three years Japan has shifted significant forces from its north opposite Russia and North Korea to its south to respond to Beijing's recent and ever escalating aggressions. Miyako and neighboring islands have been reinforced by new intelligence technology and armaments. India the past few years has also been shifting its military resources east, away from historical rival Pakistan to the Andaman Islands and to link with Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, all in response to territorial provocations and aggressions by Beijing against India itself and regional neighbors.

The Kra canal is a vitally needed megaproject of critically new maritime infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific Strategic Region and in respect of the Global Maritime Commons under the UN Convention on the International Law of the Sea, so no government of significance is opposing it, Certainly no one in Asean opposes it, which puts the spotlight on Thailand and its ongoing and exclusively inward obsessions.

The Ammart, all of their allies in government institutions and the Thailand deep state are opposed, Thaksin, new corporate eiltes and the PTP government are in favor. The Boyz in Beijing are going to build this canal come hell or high water. So this gets interestinger and interestinger, to borrow the unique observation of a distinguished other. .

Oh, dear. Somebody had to go and mention China in the news again.

This is nothing. Find and post an article along these lines, and watch the thread come unglued:

"US expresses concern over China canal in Thailand".

[Pikeybkk]

and within a day of opening , there will be on the spot checks of ships for tea money

[indyuk]

DidntThailand want to build a port in Myanmar to transport all this stuff from China coming by rail?

Yes and it is Still a good project for a port offering road and potentially rail transportation of container slip cargoes destined for Western China.

[Thai at Heart]

Do the Chinese really want this anymore?

[Thai at Heart]

DidntThailand want to build a port in Myanmar to transport all this stuff from China coming by rail?

Yes and it is Still a good project for a port offering road and potentially rail transportation of container slip cargoes destined for Western China.

So this gets redundant

[Familyonthemove]

'The Siamese Government undertake that no canal linking the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Siam shall be cut across Siamese territory without the prior concurrence of the Government of the United Kingdom.' --The Anglo-Thai Peace Treaty of 1946, Article 7

And United Kingdom is a colony of Singapore.

I thought it was a colony of Saudi Arabia? Or is that just Knightsbridge?

[Publicus]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Building of this canal has been talked about since 1677

Who will pay for it ?

China will, so long as they can build it with their own cheap labour and then operate it and collect the fees for the next 50 years.

In the end of little financial benefit to Thailand other than a small share of the fees and maybe China will buy some more rice..

But a very good idea so long as Thailand's ships can use it for free

A Chinese contractor has operated the Panama Canal after the Panama Canal Authority took over adminstration of the canal in 1999 without incident. Canal fees are taxed by Panama and is the country's main source of revenues. As a side note, Panama now has a third generation Chinese population whose native language is mostly spanish.

A Chinese-financed canal benefits Thailand. If only Chinese labor must be used to build the canal (which I doubt can be mandated), their wages will also generate tax revenue in addition to any company payroll taxes and other national taxes. Thai suppliers and contractors might have priority in the canal construction that would further benefit the Thai economy. There would be no reason to exempt Thailand shippers from canal fees and deprive Thailand the revenue they would generate - they have the choice to avoid the canal.

All well and good so to your first point, the Boyz in Beijing completed the massive Three Gorges Dam project (over an earthquake zone) and now have ventured beyond their borders and shores in pursuit of canal enterprises. That seems to be a direct consequence of a succession of hydraulic engineers over three decades appointing themselves to the Politburo and to the Central Committee.

The second Panama Canal is a welcome project in the United States for several reasons, a couple of which merit mention here and now. Meanwhile, the Kra Canal proposals now on the table only exacerbate the severe divisions currently manifest in Thailand itself.

The current increases of global shipping exceed the capacity of the extant Panama Canal, so a 2nd canal has become a necessity and Beijing constructing it is an economic windfall to the U.S. and to the EU, the latter being the largest economic and financial entity of the global economy..

Washington well knows of the CCP cadre that have moved into Panama to become locals. When I lived and worked in the CCP-PRC I met some CCP cadre who were visiting back home in the PRC and who had taken up their Beijing assigned residence in Panama Their self-acquired Spanish was awfully weak, and those cadre who'd learned some Spanish in the PRC from Chinese teachers had learned the King's Spanish rather than the Latino Spanish spoken in Latin America..The CIA anyway has as many operatives in the area, agents and locals, as the CCP has cadre there. As Washington draws down in south-central Asia and the ME, its Pivot to the Pacific includes attending to the presence of CCP cadre in Central and South America, respectively.

I'd posted above that the Strait of Malacca is already overloaded by 60,000 ships traversing it annually. Projections are that by 2020, even with a Kra Canal coming online at approximately that time, the Strait will have 440,000 ships in its waters bumper to bumper The canal must be built just to keep from falling too far behind.

Thailand benefits enormously from the canal even if Bangkok has to shockingly bend a few labor laws and environmental concerns during its construction. The real major interest of Thailand in this project, supported by Washington and its allies globally, is to preserve Thailand's sovereignty during construction and afterward during the operation of the CCP built canal. It's of solid comfort in key foreign capitals that the Thai military will never buddy up with Beijing.

[Publicus]

it's just part of China's " two oceans strategy". They always wanted and will want to have direct access to both the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Most certainly -in the long run- they don't want to have to sail their ships between two Muslim countries (Malaysia & Indonesia).

You and I and others know it so there's no question governments know it. Some more good news is that Beijing's "two oceans strategy" remains far from a reality and that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) may as well be paddling canoes.

PLAN's best direct access route to the open western Pacific, the Miyako Strait, is alas controlled by Japan. To access the western Pacific, the PLAN still has to sail north up between Russia and Japan, then around northernmost Japan to go south down the length of Japan. In other words, to access the western Pacific during hostilities or tensions, the PLAN has to steam north to go south instead of moving in a straight line east. Translation: a day late and a dollar short.

Down on the other side,in Thailand and at Kra, the Andaman Islands are almost literally meters away from the Indian Ocean opening of each of the finalist two locations of the canal (options A2 or A5). India is completing construction on the Andamans of two huge bases, one naval and the other for the air force.

During the past three years Japan has shifted significant forces from its north opposite Russia and North Korea to its south to respond to Beijing's recent and ever escalating aggressions. Miyako and neighboring islands have been reinforced by new intelligence technology and armaments. India the past few years has also been shifting its military resources east, away from historical rival Pakistan to the Andaman Islands and to link with Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, all in response to territorial provocations and aggressions by Beijing against India itself and regional neighbors.

The Kra canal is a vitally needed megaproject of critically new maritime infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific Strategic Region and in respect of the Global Maritime Commons under the UN Convention on the International Law of the Sea, so no government of significance is opposing it, Certainly no one in Asean opposes it, which puts the spotlight on Thailand and its ongoing and exclusively inward obsessions.

The Ammart, all of their allies in government institutions and the Thailand deep state are opposed, Thaksin, new corporate eiltes and the PTP government are in favor. The Boyz in Beijing are going to build this canal come hell or high water. So this gets interestinger and interestinger, to borrow the unique observation of a distinguished other. .

Oh, dear. Somebody had to go and mention China in the news again.

This is nothing. Find and post an article along these lines, and watch the thread come unglued:

"US expresses concern over China canal in Thailand".

The Kra Canal project of the CCP is strongly supported in Washington, on Wall Street and in middle America as being cost efficient to the United States both short term and long term. It's advantageous to the US to pay canal user fees rather than directly engage in the canal construction project. The EU could build the canal, as could Japan alone or in a consortium and so could Russia, but they'd much prefer to let the Boyz in Beijing charge forward.

It could seem the whole world is for this being done by the Boyz in Beijing except for the ammart and the Thai military (and Singapore). It's understandable the latter two would wretch at the thought of the country being dug up and separated. There's also the matter of Thai sovereignty over Thai soil and populations, resources etc.

While a much more unified Thailand in the past had managed to dodge colonization, the present severely divided Thailand may not be so capable concerning globalization. Radically changed times have put Thailand behind the 8-ball in more ways than one.