I was in Qingdao for a wedding last week. The Chinese coastal city is best-known for its Tsingtao Brewery built by the Germans in 1903. And Tsingtao beer is now China’s main exported beer. In the 1980s, the Tsingtao beer company attempted to acquire a local rival. It was a long fight, and I was told that locals jokingly referred to it as the city’s mini-version of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. Why? The Chinese media referred to the war as the “Yi-Yi” war, because the Chinese-words for Iran and Iraq both start with the character “Yi”.
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Tag Archives: Iraq
Qingdao’s mini Iran-Iraq war
China’s oil troubles in the Middle East
I heard two interesting oil stories from last week’s US visit.
First, Libya has rejected a $417 million bid by China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) for Verenex, a Canadian oil-exploration company with Libyan oil leases. Libya’s national company has since purchased Verenex at 30% less than CNPC’s offer price. I’m not sure if Libya’s response was specific to China itself, or a de-facto attempt to nationalize some of its oil assets.
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The Silent Crisis
It is easy to feel giddy about the rise of the Silk Road. But the outcome is far from guaranteed. One threat in particular might yet bring the region to its knees.
Water.
There is no escaping the Silk Road’s water shortages. The region is one of the driest parts of the planet. Yet, water is needed to run everything from textile factories in China, five-star hotels in Dubai, to washing- machines in Cairo.
Let’s start with a few figures. The Silk Road has an average of 2,260 cubic meters of internal renewable water per person. The equivalent figure is 9,300 in the United States. In fact, an abundance of water is an important, but often overlooked, reason why the United States might defy its critics and remain the world’s major power through the end of this century.
Silk Road Gallery
Canton Trade Fair
August 12th, 2010
August 12th, 2010
“China cheat sheet helps investors survive”, Bloomberg, September 1, 2010
“No more silver bullets for Beijing”, Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2010
“China’s historic return to the Gulf”, Foreign Policy, April 2, 2010
