Regional analysis:
Regionally dominant Greater China extends her sphere of influence over Outer Mongolia, North Korea, Taiwan, the Indochinese states of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, but also Thailand, Burma/Myanmar and the continental part of Malaysia, as well as Pakistan.
Sea-borne access for land-locked provinces: (Helps energy transport diversification as well as boost to trade/commerce)
- Pakistan gives Xinjiang and Tibet almost immediate access to the Persian gulf, permitting oil-pipelines to be fed into Xinjiang via Gwadar port, Pakistan bypassing the Malacca Straits, a major choke point for Chinese oil shipments from the Middle East.
- Myanmar gives Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan land-locked interior provinces almost immediate access to the Indian Ocean, permitting oil-pipelines to be fed into Kunming via Sittwe and Kyaukphyu ports in Myanmar. The underdeveloped provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan would benefit from the close proximity of Sittwe/Kyaukphyu ports in Myanmar.
- North Korea gives Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Inner Mongolia land-locked interior provinces almost immediate access to the Sea of Japan (East Sea), permitting trade and commerce to thrive via the Port of Rajin, North Korea.
Chinese energy hinterland (business, not colonialism)
- Russian Far East (Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Kra, AKA "Outer Manchuria") gives China plentiful access to close natural resources in the only habitable areas of the Russian Far East. Distance from Lake Baikal, where 25% of the world's fresh water is located, is a mere 350 miles from the Chinese border, so a water-pipeline could be constructed to alleviate the water-scarce northern provinces of China.
- Outer Mongolia gives China almost immediately proximal access to rich natural resources of iron, uranium, coal, oil, etc...
- Central Asia (ie. most of the former Soviet Central Asian ‘stans’ (except Turkmenistan), part of Afghanistan) gives China almost immediate access to rich plentiful sources of natural gas, oil, raw minerals.
- Note:The rich surplus account of China's foreign exchange reserves, plus China's rising influences in these regions, will help China secure preferential rates and "first dibs" on investment opportunities, simply given the sheer proximity of these resources to the booming Chinese market.
Command of the Seas(blue water naval global power projection starts with immediate neighborly regional waters)
- Taiwan island gives China an "unsinkable" carrier base strategically located at the heart of the East China sea, overlooking important international shipping routes from northern China, Koreas, and Japan to the Middle East, India, and Europe.
- South East Asia gives Chinese trade and commercial vessels unparalleled travel access to and from China, as well as permitting Chinese naval movements pass the Mallaca Straits into the Indian Ocean and beyond to the oil rich Middle East, mineral rich African continent, and vast markets of Indian subcontinent.
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