[china] the scope of the threat [part 4]

Hill of Megiddo underlined

China and the Silk Road

Basically, the Silk Road splits three ways, through Langzhou, Chengdu and Kunming. The latter takes you south and the former two the way to the east, the northern way and the central [or southern] way. Superimposing the ancient silk route over this map, it can be seen that China would have to negotiate Russia this way. South, it would have to negotiate India.

The middle way itself splits round the mountains and the lower way has Tibet to negotiate but both come through Kashmir eventually. Then, in turn, the route runs past Islamabad until it reaches its first main obstacle – Kabul. Then it must somehow get round or through those mountains and make for the bottom of the Caspian Sea, where Tehran lies.

If they’ve got that far, now comes the tricky bit – Iraq. If you were heading for the Mediterranean, on the way to, say, Rome and the rest of Europe, you now come to two major obstacles: The Tigris and Euphrates. Which are wet. But not necessarily. As this article shows, it’s possible to dry up those rivers.

From Syria comes the news of the largest earth fill Dam in the world the, Euphrates Dam (Sad Al Furat), inaugurated by President Assad in 1993. This project, built with Soviet aid in the 80's, generates electricity for a large portion of Syria. The concrete walls are 60 meters high and the dam is 2500 meters long and starts off at 512 meters wide at the bottom to 19 meters in width at the top.

Given that you are now travelling, by agreement, across the dry Tigris riverbed, you meet an interesting place 30km south of Baghdad. It’s called Babel [as in Babylon]. Then, once across the Euphrates, next stop is Damascus, Beirut and Haifa. Haifa’s interesting in that it is to the south, on the coast, of a large, broad valley which gives perfect access to the Mediterranean – the Valley of Esdraelon, which might not mean much to you.

At the edge of that plain is Nazareth and at one end, the Sea of Galilee. To reach the sea, you must pass a little mountain or large hill, called Har Megiddon. Don’t take my word for it – check the map. So, seeing as how we’re now here with a 200 million strong army, best to take a look at the little book I referred to, called Revelations.

And the sixth angel poured out his vial on the great river Euphrates and the water thereof was dried up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared [16:12]. A little further on: And he gathered them together into a place called, in the Hebrew tongue – Har Megiddon [16:16]. A little earlier: And they had a king over them … in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon [9:11] and the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand and I heard the number of them [9:16].

The 1st obvious objection to this, leaving aside that it was written 2000 years ago by a hallucinating madman with severe food poisoning, is how are they going to pick up some uber-king along the way and why would they bother listening to him? Well, there happens to be this guy, you know, right at this moment, roaming around the Tibet and Kashmir region [although sometimes he appears in Nigeria] – calls himself Djwahl Kuhl or Lord Maitreya and it’s quite possible to do your own research on the net about him – start with Alice Bailey.

The 2nd obvious objection is how could any country, even China, raise and maintain a 200 million strong army? Well, they couldn’t, as the supply lines would be impossibly stretched. But what if it was a coalition of China, Persia and India, protecting their oil supply? No problems with sustenance there. And Syria, the last leg of the journey and who controls the dams, is friends with Persia.

The clear objection even to this is that India’s population rivals China’, it has its own proud history and could stand up to the Chinese. Or could it? Just how efficient is India. One piece of anecdotal evidence by Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, broadcast on Radio 4 in July, 2006 is revealing:

I have spent the last eight years living in Beijing, and only four days in Delhi, so comparisons are difficult. But the few days I recently spent in India made me look at China in a new light. Delhi is an overwhelming experience. It is as if all of humanity squeezed into one city. The streets groan under the weight of people. The air is filled with deafening noise and sumptuous smells.

Coming from China it is an almost shocking experience. But after the initial delight at being in an open society, I started to notice other things. The hotel was expensive and bad. In my room I searched for a high speed internet connection, a standard feature in any hotel in China. There was not one. Then with the night-time temperature still well above 30C (86F) the power went out.

I lay for hours soaked in sweat trying, and failing, to get back to sleep and wishing I was back in Beijing where the lights never go out. But getting back would not be easy. I looked at my plane ticket. Departure time 0315. Surely that could not be right. I called the front desk. "That's correct sir," he said, "the airport is too small so many flights from Delhi leave in the middle of the night." He was not joking. My taxi struggled along the Jaipur road towards the airport. The two-lane road clogged by an endless convoy of lorries.

Finally I arrived at Indira Gandhi International airport. Despite the hour it teemed with people. The queues snaked around the airport and back to where they had started. Foreign tourists stared in bewilderment, locals with the resigned look of those used to waiting. Six hours later, our plane taxied to a halt in front of the soaring glass and steel of Shanghai's Pudong International Airport. As we emerged into the cool silence of the ultra-modern terminal, my new companion's jaw slid towards his belly button.

I found myself looking at China afresh. Later that day as I drove home from Beijing airport along the smooth six-lane highway I could not help feel a sense of relief at being back in a country where things work. And it was not just the airports and roads. Driving through a village on the edge of Beijing I was struck by how well everyone was dressed. In Delhi, I was shocked to see thousands of people sleeping rough on the streets every night, but … even deep in China's countryside, that is not something you will see.

In Delhi I had been told of the wonders of India's new economy, of the tens of thousands of bright young graduates churning out the world's latest computer software. I thought of China's new economy, of the tens of millions of rural migrants who slave away in factories, making everything from plimsolls to plasma televisions [referred to below]. And of the same rural migrants, heading home to their villages at Chinese New Year festival loaded down with gifts, their pockets stuffed full of cash.

If you haven’t already jumped ship by now, Part 5 looks at the damage China is doing both at home and around the world.