China and Thailand seek cooperation on High Speed Rail project

[Dogmatix]

Thought this project had to be cancelled because it was one of Thaksin's corrupt brain children that made no sense for country.

[Publicus]

Prez Obama will make his second visit to Myanmar in mid-November and this will be a matter of considerable discussion. He'll also hit China and Australia for various meetings the most important of which will be the G-20 in Brisbane..

Because the U.S. and Japan completely took over the Dawei deep water port project, the CCP Boyz in Beijing, who have been aced out of Myanmar, won't have any access to Dawei unless they begin to walk the straight and narrow in the S China Sea and in the East Sea in respect of Japan. And that's just for starters regarding the regional behaviors of the CCP Very Bad Boyz..

Laos is landlocked and off Beijing's desired rail route. Even if the CCP Boyz ran their dual purpose high speed awfully slow line down the spine of Laos and through Cambodia they'd still come out on the wrong side of India and the ME.

So Thailand is definitely the key to Beijing's access to the Bay of Bengal and westward to India, Iran, the ME, but Thailand lost what tentative control it had over Dawei and hasn't any alternative within the former LOS.

The Kra Canal project is it, but while the deep South is enthusiastic for it, the elites of Bangkok and the Surat are dead set against. It's said every man has his price but what do you provide to a large bunch of people who among them are the ruling class and combined have a couple of trillion baht and then some.

[keemapoot]

Prez Obama will make his second visit to Myanmar in mid-November and this will be a matter of considerable discussion. He'll also hit China and Australia for various meetings the most important of which will be the G-20 in Brisbane..

Because the U.S. and Japan completely took over the Dawei deep water port project, the CCP Boyz in Beijing, who have been aced out of Myanmar, won't have any access to Dawei unless they begin to walk the straight and narrow in the S China Sea and in the East Sea in respect of Japan. And that's just for starters regarding the regional behaviors of the CCP Very Bad Boyz..

Laos is landlocked and off Beijing's desired rail route. Even if the CCP Boyz ran their dual purpose high speed awfully slow line down the spine of Laos and through Cambodia they'd still come out on the wrong side of India and the ME.

So Thailand is definitely the key to Beijing's access to the Bay of Bengal and westward to India, Iran, the ME, but Thailand lost what tentative control it had over Dawei and hasn't any alternative within the former LOS.

The Kra Canal project is it, but while the deep South is enthusiastic for it, the elites of Bangkok and the Surat are dead set against. It's said every man has his price but what do you provide to a large bunch of people who among them are the ruling class and combined have a couple of trillion baht and then some.

I have recently met and spent considerable time with the Chinese officials socializing this project to the Thais from Bangkok to Khon Kaen and Nong Khai. I'm not at liberty to disclose more than this, but I will say in my opinion this project will go forward.

The benefits to the Thais are obvious, and if Beijing foots much of the bill, so much the better. It was confirmed to me that Laos is their most problematic portion in order to connect to Nong Khai in Thailand. Of course, under the prior administration, agreement was to go the N. Thailand route through Chiangmai, but that changed radically with recent developments.

The net result is that Thailand will be able to tout a relatively "high speed" new railway project, will be part of this much vaunted Maritime Silk Road and through Thailand's connections in the Dawei project will be China's partner for access to that deep water port. The net effect of this for Thailand is greatly increased prestige and leverage in the ongoing power play between China and the US, without directly pissing off the US (hopefully). Also, keep in mind that if the goal of US policy is to check China in its quest for this trade route by helping to block things in S. China and E China seas, then a win with Thailand results in a sort of checkmate for China ultimately.

For sure, the planners have given up the option of the S China Sea route, and they will not "walk the straight and narrow" in respect of S China Sea and East in respect of Japan as you assert.

Keep in mind that pushing through a major infrastructure project that doesn't cost too much to Thailand will be much easier under the current state of government in Thailand.

[Publicus]

Prez Obama will make his second visit to Myanmar in mid-November and this will be a matter of considerable discussion. He'll also hit China and Australia for various meetings the most important of which will be the G-20 in Brisbane..

Because the U.S. and Japan completely took over the Dawei deep water port project, the CCP Boyz in Beijing, who have been aced out of Myanmar, won't have any access to Dawei unless they begin to walk the straight and narrow in the S China Sea and in the East Sea in respect of Japan. And that's just for starters regarding the regional behaviors of the CCP Very Bad Boyz..

Laos is landlocked and off Beijing's desired rail route. Even if the CCP Boyz ran their dual purpose high speed awfully slow line down the spine of Laos and through Cambodia they'd still come out on the wrong side of India and the ME.

So Thailand is definitely the key to Beijing's access to the Bay of Bengal and westward to India, Iran, the ME, but Thailand lost what tentative control it had over Dawei and hasn't any alternative within the former LOS.

The Kra Canal project is it, but while the deep South is enthusiastic for it, the elites of Bangkok and the Surat are dead set against. It's said every man has his price but what do you provide to a large bunch of people who among them are the ruling class and combined have a couple of trillion baht and then some.

I have recently met and spent considerable time with the Chinese officials socializing this project to the Thais from Bangkok to Khon Kaen and Nong Khai. I'm not at liberty to disclose more than this, but I will say in my opinion this project will go forward.

The benefits to the Thais are obvious, and if Beijing foots much of the bill, so much the better. It was confirmed to me that Laos is their most problematic portion in order to connect to Nong Khai in Thailand. Of course, under the prior administration, agreement was to go the N. Thailand route through Chiangmai, but that changed radically with recent developments.

The net result is that Thailand will be able to tout a relatively "high speed" new railway project, will be part of this much vaunted Maritime Silk Road and through Thailand's connections in the Dawei project will be China's partner for access to that deep water port. The net effect of this for Thailand is greatly increased prestige and leverage in the ongoing power play between China and the US, without directly pissing off the US (hopefully). Also, keep in mind that if the goal of US policy is to check China in its quest for this trade route by helping to block things in S. China and E China seas, then a win with Thailand results in a sort of checkmate for China ultimately.

For sure, the planners have given up the option of the S China Sea route, and they will not "walk the straight and narrow" in respect of S China Sea and East in respect of Japan as you assert.

Keep in mind that pushing through a major infrastructure project that doesn't cost too much to Thailand will be much easier under the current state of government in Thailand.

There's really no question the Bangkok elites want the prestige (as they see it) of a high speed rail route whether they need it or can find any good use of it and the project being discussed is almost entirely to the benefit of the free spending CCP Boyz in Beijing. Some Thais will make a couple of bucks out of it and a few Thails will get bags of bucks from it.

Although high speed very slow rail transport constitutes a serious heavy industry infrastructure and requires serious fuel resources, it is essentially a "light energy" project, especially in contrast to any "heavy energy" nuclear plants and the like which no one in Thailand actually wants.

Thai generated innovations are "light energy" ones well exemplified by fresh water shrimp farming in addition to salt water shrimp harvesting. That is to say, the Industrial Revolution never would have occurred in Thailand in a billion years.

Thailand has to hope it has full access to Dawei so the CCP Boyz in Beijing have to hope also that that's the case, but neither has much leverage over that aspect of the Grand Plan as the Boyz of Myanmar have given the CCP the stiff arm in favor of the U.S. and the promise of elections which likely would propel Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to the presidency.

The CCP Boyz dug their own grave over the Kra Canal when they started their low intensity havoc in the China seas and with their mooncake territorial claims against the northern quadrant of India.

I haven't any fiduciary or social interests in these matters so I can speak freely to reiterate that the world is an interconnected place. If certain governments want to modify the existing international system and its long established order they would be welcome to do so constructively. Dictatorships determined to overthrow it however are being dealt with as they have been in the past.

Dictatorships come and go while democratic societies endure.

[keemapoot]

^Yes, certainly the key viability of this project depends on Thailand's access to Dawei, and in that respect you see those discussions have been restarted, strategically. One suspects that Thailand's discussions have been restarted with perhaps key supporting deep pockets from the Middle Kingdom.

Whatever form of consortium from Thailand that finally emerges from Dawei with a piece of the action, I highly suspect that those deep pocket partners will be part of it, and I don't think the US and Japan can totally lock out China in this respect, because the lead Consortium member will be Thai.