When I was last in the GBAO (he said, obnoxiously), things were a little more rudimentary, but the Chinese influence was already very obvious. China has basically embarked on a project to own (commercially) the parts of the world that the West turns its nose up at. So Central Asia is full of road-building projects commissioned by local governments and executed by Chinese engineers and workers, most of which have the useful property of helping move finished goods quickly from Chinese manufacturers to local markets, and moving raw materials back in the other direction. (The same thing is happening in other parts of Asia and Africa).
And boy, do they need better roads. What he said about Chinese truckers as frontiersmen is right on the money: God damn, but those guys earn their money. I saw a couple of truckers who’d failed to negotiate a scary turn and dropped a bulldozer & half a brand new tractor trailer down a waterfall. You couldn’t pay me enough to drive stuff that big on roads that bad.
The Western perspective on the world – as reflected in our media, at least – is singularly arrogant and egocentric, usually portraying other nations as unwashed illiterates and China as primarily a source of cheap goods to fill our Walmarts. The future of the world, we are told, will be determined by Western ingenuity and force of arms. I think China has other ideas. And like the author of the article, I think Central Asia is a good place to see how they’re working on making a future of their own.
