If China wants a chance to really f**k with Turkiye and permanently rewrite European geopolitics, they should get started on this. A China-built Greece-Macedonia-Serbia canal () would bypass the Turkish Straits and create a preferential water route for Chinese shipping.
The feasibility studies were done and it'd be a piece of cake for Chinese firms. It'd basically revitalize the economic outlook of the Western Balkans and create an entire pro-China bloc there (tbh Serbia and Greece are already friends). The canal cooperation could even help mend relations between North Macedonia and Greece (like what's happening with the Iran-Saudi talks).
Turkiye gets a lot of its power from being able to control the international commerce going through the Bosporus strait. They're planning on closing that strait and forcing traffic through their parallel and newly-built Istanbul Canal, where they'll toll cargo and control trade through the region. Having a Greece and China-provided, faster and cheaper route alternative would absolutely destroy their monopoly. Personally, Erdogan is a backstabbing a**hole and the sooner China gets him down on his knees the better.
