High-Speed Empire

China is building infrastructure all over the world, under the mantle of its One Belt One Road initiative. The roads, rails, bridges, ports and airports it builds are mainly to facility transport and commerce, to strengthen trading relationships between China and the world. But, as most of its ambitious building happens in poverty-ridden, corruption-prone Asian countries, China also fits the bill. Heavily indebted to China, countries like Laos, Malaysia, Thailand then have to hand back large ownership of the investments to China. And China's influence grows, while Chinese citizens flood towards the business opportunities and fancy condos that shoot up in these new special economic zones.

This book is mainly about getting the Pan-Asia Railway underway, but it also hints at the bigger picture. I'm starting to like the Columbia Global Reports series, they are short and very informative.