Slowly but surely, a four-lane highway is beginning to take shape on the sparsely populated Central Asian steppe. Soviet-era cars, trucks and aging long-distance buses weave past modern yellow bulldozers, cranes and towering construction drills, laboring under Chinese supervision to build a road that could one day stretch from eastern Asia to Western Europe.
This small stretch of blacktop, running past potato fields, bare dun-colored rolling hills and fields of grazing cattle, is a symbol of China’s march westward, an advance into Central Asia that is steadily wresting the region from Russia’s embrace.
Yes, I love it when a plan comes together.
Russia really should worry. The year 2020 isn't so very far off at all.
Yeah, that navy Putin is trying to rebuild will be real useful if things go badly on the border between China and Russian territory (and their central Asian "near abroad").
