The Wall Street Journal - Nov 10, 2014
In a valley flanked by snow-capped peaks on China’s border with
Kazakhstan, a vision of Beijing’s ambitions to redraw the geopolitical
map of Asia is taking shape. This remote outpost, once a transit point
for Silk Road merchants, is where China is building one of its newest
cities. As the WSJ’s Jeremy Page reports:
Covering more than twice the area of New York City,
Horgos had just 85,000 residents when it was founded in September,
enveloping several towns and villages in an area known for lavender
fields.
China’s plan is to transform the sleepy frontier crossing into an
international railway, energy and logistics hub for a “Silk Road
Economic Belt” unveiled by President Xi Jinping last year to establish
new trade and transport links between China, Central Asia and Europe.
Horgos is a small element of China’s wider effort to bind surrounding
regions more closely to it through pipelines, roads, railways and
ports, say diplomats and analysts who have studied the plans it has made
public.
READ MORE.....
