China is completing a global ports network for the BRICS economic bloc, and nobody noticed

China’s Maritime Silk Road was announced just ten years ago, yet already forms the backbone for the BRICS trading bloc. It is a comprehensive system of world-class, deep-water ports across Global South countries, and most of the ports are fully operational and are re-routing the world’s resource flows. China now does more trade with the Belt and Road countries than with the United States, the European Union, and Japan, combined. Western analysts were long focused on the potential military aspects of the Maritime Silk Road and the benefits that would accrue to the PLA’s naval forces. But careful analysis of the individual port projects themselves show that only fourteen of the over one hundred ports can be repurposed for military use. Even countries that are very friendly with the United States, ironically including some who host large US military bases, have joined the Belt and Road Initiative, will eventually be weighing full membership in the BRICS group of nations, as the economic benefits of the joining the bloc will outweigh their partnerships in the US- and NATO-led security systems. Resources and links: Lazard, The Geopolitics of Supply Chains Washington Post, China has acquired a global network of strategically vital ports Council for Foreign Relations, Tracking China’s Control of Overseas Ports Closing scene, Grasslands near Yili, Xinjiang province