Silk Road

The Political Economics of the International North-South Transport Corridor

For India, the INSTC opens the way for trading with Iran and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.

On June 11, two 40-foot containers of wood laminate sheets departed from St. Petersburg on a journey to India. Travelling from the Astrakhan Port in southern Russia to the Iranian ports of Anzali on the Caspian sea and Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf, the consignment will reach the west coast of India, docking either at Nhava Sheva or Mundra port. If there are no major impediments, the consignment should reach India by the first week of July.

The test consignment from Russia, commencing trade on the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) route, has generated plenty of enthusiasm in government circles. Aside from the fact that this North-South route saves nearly two weeks of travel time, the positioning of the INSTC as an alternative to the traditional deep sea Suez Canal route is the focus of geostrategic and economic diplomacy, primarily for India, Russia and Iran.

The legal basis for the INSTC multi-modal network of ship, rail, and road for moving freight was provided by India, Russia and Iran at the Euro-Asian Conference on Transport in St. Petersburg on September 12, 2000. Other members include Turkey, Oman, Syria, Belarus and Ukraine; the Central Asian nations of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan; and Caucasus nations Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan are not party to the INSTC agreement but are interested in using the transport corridor.

For years, policy makers and academics have lamented the delays in making the INSTC operational. The realisation of the trade potential of East Europe, the Persian Gulf and India began to be actively pursued only after the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) free trade agreement (FTA) in 2015, led by Russia.

For the EAEU, the transport corridor has special significance both as an important alternative economic development corridor and as a response to the economic and political influence of the European Union (EU). Countries along the North–South axis have been keen to interact with the EAEU, beginning in May, 2018 with the signing of an FTA with Iran. A similar FTA is being negotiated between the EAEU and India.

The requirement for an alternative logistics route was starkly felt during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent supply chain disruptions. In March, 2021 the Ever Given container ship was stuck in the Suez Canal, virtually halting cargo traffic between the Red and Mediterranean Seas. And now, as the conflict in Ukraine has intensified, there is more competition between the EAEU and the EU over the economic integration of Eastern Europe.

Also read: Ever Given: The Physics of Big Ships Clogging the Suez Canal

The current test consignment is moving along the Western and TransCaspian route of the INSTC, along the ports of Baku and Bandar-e Anzali, reaching Bandar Abbas overland and thereafter crossing the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. There were previous dry runs on the 7,200-km-long INSTC route in 2014, 2016 and 2021, all of which confirm the average time using either the road section, from Bandar Abbas to Baku; or the Caspian sea route, from Bandar Abbas to Amirabad to Astrakhan, would take an average of 18 days.

In terms of cost, a study conducted by the ‘Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) found the route is “30% cheaper and 40% shorter than the current traditional route.”

India’s interest in the development of the INSTC is manifested by its $2.1 billion investments, including the construction of the port of Chabahar in Iran and the construction of a 500 km Chabahar-Zahedan railway line. Chabahar is now capable of processing ultra-large container ships.

For India, the INSTC opens the way for trading with Iran and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan. This, naturally, has implications in terms of reaching out to both Afghanistan and Central Asia, significant corners in our extended neighbourhood. The corridor will also provide access to potential markets in the wider Eurasia region.

Nhava Sheva port in Navi Mumbai. Photo: A.Savin/Wikimedia Commons, FAL

Obstructions on the route

At present, there are many hindrances in terms of the optimal operationalisation of the route. Iran and Russia, key INSTC countries for the purposes of expansion of international freight traffic, are facing US economic sanctions. This creates difficulties for Moscow to make major investments in infrastructure projects in other INSTC member states; and for other member states to invest in Iran.

Although Indian investments in Chabahar do not attract US sanctions, private investors remain wary of dealing with Iran and secondary sanctions that apply to third-country businesses involved in joint projects with Iranian companies. Although the shipping lines between Iran and India are unlikely to be interfered with by Washington, which itself is trying to resurrect the Iran nuclear deal and wishes to see India as a counterweight to Chinese expansionism, the effect of sanctions on the INSTC may be significant.

Also read: Why India Can’t Bank on the International North-South Transport Corridor

There are issues with clearances and completing construction of transport infrastructure facilities, among others. Even though Armenia is a party to it, the 2020 conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh prevented its access to international markets through INSTC infrastructure.

There are more objective difficulties faced by the INSTC in its progressive development. Foremost are the unfinished railway sections in Iran and Armenia, the two key states undertaking the bulk of overland freight. Different customs regimes, high harbour duty rates charged by the Caspian ports, the absence of the relevant legal framework agreements on international road transport, and most importantly, the absence of a single multimodal operator all prevent the merger of the various international transport sections into a single logistical mechanism, and gaining a competitive edge over other transport corridors.

Future pathways

Compared to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the INSTC is still in its nascent stages of operationalisation. Nevertheless, it offers a geostrategic counter to the sprawling network of the ‘New Silk Road’. Having that as a strategic option, there is, on the other hand, a sound foundation for cooperation between the China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor and for the INSTC to become a larger transport and logistic hub.

There has been quiet and steady expansion of transit and multimodal corridors in the Caspian region. The corridor can be extended up to the Baltic, Nordic and Arctic regions.

Once the initial glitches are sorted out, there is likely to be a huge trade expansion in INSTC freight traffic, estimated at 14.6-24.7 million tonnes per year. By 2030, incremental freight traffic between them and the countries of South Asia and the Persian Gulf may amount to 245,000–501,000 TEU (4.4–9.0 million tonnes), or about 75% of total potential container traffic.

Again, this depends on how transport infrastructure is improved and how far digitisation of the international corridor is achieved.

Given the recent upheavals in international trade logistics, the pursuance of the INSTC assumes special significance; for India in terms of exploring diversification of energy import destinations; for Iran as the main transit hub on the North-South and East-West corridors; and for Russia taking the lead in Eurasian trade and connectivity.

Vaishali Basu Sharma is an analyst on strategic and economic affairs. She has worked as a consultant with the National Security Council Secretariat for nearly a decade.

Why World History Textbooks Need to Go Beyond European Civilisation

How to teach world history today is a question that is going to grow only more and more important.

The centre of a map tells you much, as does the choice where to begin a story or a history. Arab geographers used to place the Caspian Sea at the centre of world maps. On a medieval Turkish map, one that transfixed me long ago, we find the city of Balasaghun at the heart of the world. How to teach world history today is a question that is going to grow only more and more important.

Last summer in the US, a debate flared when the influential testing agency Advanced Placement (AP) announced a change to its attendant courses, a change in which ‘world history’ would begin in 1450. In practice, beginning world history in 1450 becomes a story about how Europeans came to dominate not one but all the continents and excludes the origins of alphabets, agriculture, cities and civilisation. Before the 1400s, it was others who did the empire-building, drove sciences, medicine and philosophy, and sought to capitalise on and extend the trading networks that facilitated the flow and exchange of goods, ideas, faiths and people.

Under pressure, the AP College Board retreated saying, “We’ve received thoughtful, principled feedback from AP teachers, students and college faculty.” As a result, the start date for the course has been nudged back 250 years to 1200. Consequently, “teachers and students can begin the course with a study of the civilisations in Africa, the Americas and Asia that are foundational to the modern era,” they added.

Where that leaves Plato and Aristotle, or ancient Greece and Rome, is unclear – but presumably none are ‘foundational to the modern era’. That in itself is strange given that so many of the most famous buildings of Washington, DC (for example) are designed in classical style to deliberately evoke the world of 2,000 years ago; or that Mark Zuckerberg, a posterboy for new technologies and the 21st century, admits to Emperor Augustus as his role model.

Gone too is China of the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) and the networks that linked the Pacific with the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean 2,000 years ago, and that allow us to understand that Asia, Africa and Europe were connected many centuries prior in a world that was effectively ‘globalised’. No space for the Maya civilisation and culture in Central America or for the kingdom of Igodomigodo in West Africa, whose economic, cultural, military and political achievements have been discarded as irrelevant to the ‘modern era’. Who cares about the Indian emperor Ashoka, or the Chola dynasty of Southern India that spread eastwards into South East Asia in the 10th and 11th centuries? The connections between Scandinavia and Central Asia that helped to bring all of northern Europe out of what used to be called ‘the Dark Ages’ don’t get a look-in either. And too bad for climate change and the ways in which looking at the changes in global temperatures 1,500 years ago led to the collapse of cities, the dispersal of populations and the spread of pandemics.

Also read: The Ghettoisation of Indian Education

History is at its most exciting and stimulating for students and teachers alike when there is scope to look at connectivity, to identify and work through deep rhythms and trends, and to explore the past by challenging assumptions that the story of the world can be charted through a linear progression – as the AP College Board seems to think with its statement linking 1200 with the ‘modern era’.

If you really want to see how foolish this view is – and how unfortunate it is to narrow down the scope of the World History course, then take a look at the front pages in just about any country in the world today. In China, news is dominated by the Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese-led plan to regalvanise the ancient networks of the past into the modern-day Silk Roads: there are many and sharply divergent views about the aims, motivations and likely outcomes of the Belt and Road Initiative. This is far and away the single most important geopolitical development in the modern world today. Understanding why Beijing is trying to return to the glory years of the Silk Roads (which date back 2,000 years) would seem to be both interesting, and important – and largely to be bypassed by the new World History scope.

We can look to the other end of Asia, to Istanbul where, every year, hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets in Turkey to commemorate the Battle of Manzikert – which was fought in 1071. It might be useful to know why. Assessing the relationship between Russia and Ukraine might also be of some value in a period when the former has annexed part of the territory of the latter. A major spat broke out last summer between the two countries over whether Anne of Kiev was Russian or Ukrainian. She died in 1075.

It does not take an expert to see the resonance of the 7th century across the Middle East – where fundamentalists attempted to build an ‘Islamic State’ based on their model of the early Muslim world, destroying not only lives and the region in the process, but deliberately destroying history itself in places such as Palmyra. It does, though, take an expert to work out why they are trying to turn back the clock 1,400 years and what their utopian world looks like. It matters because there are plenty of others who want to do the same thing: Imran Khan, the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, for example, has said that he wants to turn his country, with its population of almost 200 million people, into ‘an ideal welfare state’ on the model that Muhammad set in Medina in the 620s and 630s – a model that set up one of the world’s ‘greatest civilisations’.

Students taking world history courses that begin in 1200 will not learn about any of these topics, even though their peers in colleges and schools around the world will. Education should expand horizons and open minds. What a shame that, in this case, they are being narrowed and shuttered. And what a shame too that this is happening at a time of such profound global change – when understanding the depth of our interconnected world is more important than ever. That, for me anyway, is the most valuable conclusion that is ‘foundational to the modern era’.

Peter Frankopan is the director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research and a senior research fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. He is the author of The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.

This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons. Read the original article.

Featured image credit: Reuters

World’s Oldest Clove? What a Find in Sri Lanka Says About the Early Spice Trade

Archaeologists have found cloves and black pepper corns they believe to be more than 1,000 years old at a site in Sri Lanka.

The history of the spice trade conjures up exotic images of caravans plying the Silk Road in storied antiquity as well as warfare between European powers vying for control of what, pound for pound, were among the most valuable commodities in the known world.

One of the most valuable of the spices was clove – the versatile immature bud of the evergreen clove tree (Syzygium aromaticum) which is native to the Maluku Islands or the Moluccas in the Indonesian Archipelago. Prized for its flavour and aroma, and also for its medicinal qualities, clove quickly became important for its use as a breath freshener, perfume and food flavouring.

We believe we might have found the oldest clove in the world at an excavation in Sri Lanka, from an ancient port which dates back to around 200 BC. This port, Mantai, was one of the most important ports of medieval Sri Lanka and drew trade from across the ancient world. Not only that, but we also found evidence for black pepper (Piper nigrum), another high-value low-bulk product of the ancient spice trade.

Ancient history

Western knowledge of Sri Lanka dates back to at least 77AD, when the Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote about the island as Taprobane in his famous Natural History. This is the earliest existing text which mentions Sri Lanka, however Pliny states that the ancient Greeks (and Alexander the Great) had long known about it.

Sri Lanka, wrote Pliny “is more productive of gold and pearls of great size than even India”, as well as having “elephants … larger, and better adapted for warfare than those of India”.

Fruits were abundant and the people had more wealth than the Romans – as well as living to 100 years old. No wonder then, that ancient Sri Lanka drew trade ships not only from the Roman world, but also from Arabia, India and China.

Decades of archaeological exploration has sought to uncover evidence for the rich kingdoms of ancient Sri Lanka. Mantai (also written as Manthai and known as Manthottam/Manthota), on the northern tip of the island, was one of the port settlements of the Anuradhapura Kingdom (377BC to 1017AD) and has been recently radiocarbon dated to between about 200BC and 1400AD.

Today, the site is barely visible from the ground – but it is still an important location with Thirukketheesvaram temple sitting in the centre of the ancient settlement. From the air, the defensive ditch and banks of ancient Mantai can be seen covered in trees, as can the area where the defences were cut away to build the modern road.

Mantai as seen from the air today. The ancient circle of ditches built to defend the site can be seen in dark green. The main settlement was inside these defences. Credit: Google Maps

The site was excavated in the 1980s – during three seasons of excavation an amazing array of artefacts were uncovered, including semiprecious stone beads and ceramics from India, Arabia, the Mediterranean and China. But in 1983 Sri Lanka’s civil war broke out, bringing an end to archaeological exploration in the Northern Province, as well as many other areas of the island. Unfortunately, many of the records related to this archaeological work became lost or were destroyed, including detailed stratigraphic information of how the layers of soil excavated related to one another, which would have been used to identify how and when the site developed, prospered and came to an end.

Mantai revisited

In 2009-2010, after the end of the civil war, a multinational team of researchers went back to Mantai and began new excavations. Work was jointly carried out by the Sri Lankan Department of Archaeology, SEALINKS and the UCL Institute of Archaeology. This project aimed to collect as much evidence from these excavations as possible, including fully quantified and systematically collected archaeobotanical (preserved plant) remains. The plants remains recovered include some of the most exciting finds from the site. Crucially, these include what were incredibly valuable spices at the time when they were deposited at the site: black pepper and cloves.

Only a handful of cloves have previously been recovered from archaeological sites, including these from France, for example – other archaeological evidence for cloves, such as pollen from cess pits in the Netherlands, only dates from 1500AD onwards – and there are no examples from South Asia.

Earlier finds of clove have been reported from Syria – but these have since largely been discredited as misidentifications. The clove from Mantai was found in a context dating to 900-1100 AD, making this not only the oldest clove in Asia – but we think the oldest in the world.

We also found eight grains of black pepper at Mantai, plus a further nine badly preserved grains that we think are probably black pepper too. The earliest are dated to around 600 AD, the time when international maritime trade became increasingly large and well established across Asia, Africa and Europe.

Spice wars

Clove was one of the rarest and most expensive spices in the Roman and Medieval world. It was not grown in Sri Lanka, but came from the Maluku Islands of South-East Asia (some 7,000km away by sea) for trade onwards to Europe, China or one of the other many regions that traded with Mantai.

Black pepper was also traded along these routes, and was most likely grown and harvested in the Western Ghats of India. Although less rare and valuable than clove, it was still known as “black gold” on account of its value in the Early Modern Period from 1500 AD to about 1800 AD.

From the 16th century, Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) was colonised by various European powers, from the Portuguese (1500s-1600s) to the Dutch (1600s-late 1700s) to the British (late 1700s-1948). They were all drawn by the island’s profitable trade in spices – although the British turned the fledgling coffee industry there into an incredibly lucrative tea trade which is still important to the island’s economy to this day.

But, whether or not the cloves we unearthed at Mantai turn out to be the oldest in existence, the presence of the spice at this 2,000-year-old site is solid evidence of the ancient spice trade that existed long before these wars of conquest.

Eleanor Kingwell-Banham, Research associate, UCL

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

China’s Xi Offers Another $60 Billion to Africa, but Says No to ‘Vanity’ Projects

China has denied engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy, and Xi’s offer of more money comes after a pledge of another $60 billion at the previous summit in South Africa three years ago.

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping offered another $60 billion in financing for Africa on Monday and wrote off some debt for poorer African nations, while warning against funds going towards “vanity projects”.

Speaking at the opening of a major summit with African leaders, Xi promised development that people on the continent could see and touch, but that would also be green and sustainable.

China has denied engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy, and Xi’s offer of more money comes after a pledge of another $60 billion at the previous summit in South Africa three years ago.

Xi, addressing leaders at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, said the new $60 billion will include $15 billion of aid, interest-free loans and concessional loans, a credit line of $20 billion, a $10 billion special fund for China-Africa development, and a $5 billion special fund for imports from Africa.

Chinese companies will be encouraged to invest no less than $10 billion in the continent in the next three years, he said.

Government debt from China’s interest free loans due by the end of 2018 will be written off for indebted poor African countries, as well as for developing nations in the continent’s interior and small island nations, Xi said.

“China-Africa cooperation must give Chinese and African people tangible benefits and successes that can be seen, that can be felt,” he said.

China will carry out 50 projects on green development and environmental protection in Africa, focusing on fighting climate change, desertification and wildlife protection, Xi said.

He pledged, without giving details, that China would set up a peace and security fund and a related forum, while continuing to provide free military assistance to the African Union.

Chinese officials have vowed to be more cautious to ensure projects are sustainable. China defends continued lending to Africa on the grounds that the continent still needs debt-funded infrastructure development.

Speaking earlier at a business forum, Xi said China had to be careful about where money was spent.

“China’s cooperation with Africa is clearly targeted at the major bottlenecks to development. Resources for our cooperation are not to be spent on any vanity projects but in places where they count the most,” he said.

Beijing has also fended off criticism it is only interested in resource extraction to feed its own booming economy, that the projects it funds have poor environmental safeguards, and that too many of the workers for them are flown in from China rather than using African labour.

‘Africa knows best’

Chinese officials say this year’s summit will strengthen Africa’s role in Xi’s Belt and Road initiative to link China by sea and land with Southeast and Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa through an infrastructure network modelled on the old Silk Road.

Xi said the plan, for which Beijing has pledged $126 billion, would help provide more resources and facilities for Africa and would expand shared markets.

China loaned around $125 billion to the continent from 2000 to 2016, data from the China-Africa Research Initiative at Washington’s Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies shows.

State media has accused the West of sour grapes over China’s prominent role in Africa and has angrily rejected claims of forcing African countries into a debt trap.

“In terms of cooperation with China, African countries know best,” widely read tabloid the Global Times wrote in an editorial on Monday.

“Western media deliberately portray Africans in misery for collaborating with China and they appear to have discovered big news by finding occasional complaints in the African media about Sino-Africa cooperation,” it said.

Every African country is represented at the business forum apart from eSwatini, self-ruled Taiwan’s last African ally that has so far rejected China’s overtures to ditch Taipei and recognise Beijing.

African presidents in attendance include South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Zambia’s Edgar Lungu and Gabon’s Ali Bongo.

There are some controversial guests.

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, who has been in power for nearly 30 years, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes over killings and persecution in Sudan’s Darfur province between 2003 and 2008.

Xi told him on Sunday that “foreign forces” should not interfere in Sudan’s internal affairs, China’s Foreign Ministry said. China is not a party to the court.

“China has always had reservations about the International Criminal Court’s indictment and arrest order against Sudan’s president. We hope the ICC can prudently handle the relevant issue,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.

(Reuters)

How a Dawoodi Bohra Family Established Itself as a Shanghai Business Powerhouse

Tracing the history of the Ebrahim family’s business history that spans across Shanghai, Hong Kong and Bombay and is HSBC’s oldest surviving client.

China and India are more deeply intertwined in recent history than we imagine. The connections date to before the two modern nations were formed and cluster to a great extent in the port city of Shanghai. Many settlers aligned themselves with the British, with mixed success. A daring, new multi-disciplinary anthology sheds fresh light on how, for nearly 200 years, Indians of all stripes not only traded with China, but put down roots, built houses, managed factories and expanded their cemeteries. They married Chinese women, birthed further generations and suffered through a Japanese occupation (1932-1945) along with the rest of Shanghai. This is the story of one such family of Indians which was among the early settlers in the city.

One sweltering-hot morning in Hong Kong in August 2017, Taha Jaffer Ebrahim, the fifth-generation leader of the Abdoolally Ebrahim Group, was wrapping up with clients in his office in Kowloon, as I waited my turn, admiring the old photographs adorning the walls of the hallway.

Ebrahim is a warm and articulate gentleman, who wears the full beard that his religion and the community of Dawoodi Bohra Muslims prescribe. The very word Bohra is derived from the Gujarati vehwahar, which can be interpreted as derived from “trading.”

We are meeting to try and trace the company’s history in Shanghai. All that is left of their Shanghai presence are two photographs: a framed snapshot of the company’s headquarters on the Bund and a group photograph of the office staff taken in 1938. Sitting at the centre is Taha Ebrahim’s grandfather, Abdeally Noordin (1883-1974), who himself was the grandson of the company’s founder, Seth Ebrahim Noordin (1824-97).

The company’s continuous presence in Hong Kong since 1842 is much better documented, but China was where most of the group’s trade once took place. “Shanghai was, without any doubt, more important than Hong Kong,” Taha Ebrahim said, when we sat down in his conference room.

Taha Ebrahim says that what he knows of its Shanghai history has been handed down from father to son, father to son. The company also maintains internal historical archives. At our meeting, Taha Ebrahim unfolded a large family tree, and spread it on the table.

The company history, detailed on its website, adds to Taha Ebrahim’s account. Research through the archives of the North China Herald, Shanghai’s earliest English-language newspaper, later uncovered the obituaries of founder Seth Ebrahim Noordin and his son, Essabhoy Ebrahim. Those sources, combined with references to the firm found in the newspaper yielded enough information for a rough sketch of the family’s Shanghai history.

At the urging of the 47th Dai-ul-Mutlaq, the head of the Dawoodi Bohra community, Syedna Abdul Qadir Najmuddin A.Q., Ebrahim Noordin travelled to Hong Kong in 1841 along with the British East India Company. He was 17 years old.

Ebrahim Noordin.

It was smack in the middle of Britain’s Opium War with China. Where did Ebrahim Noordin leave the rest of his family? Where was his sister Wazira and her husband Abdoolally Rajabali? All we know is that in 1842, Ebrahim Noordin formed a commercial partnership with his brother-in-law, Abdoolally Rajabali. Abdoolally Rajabali sold his share to Ebrahim Noordin very early on, but the Abdoolally name stuck as the first name of the young trading company. On one of his journeys back and forth, company legend has it that founder Seth Ebrahim Noordin survived a shipwreck and drifted to Bombay on a bale of cotton. The company’s intrepid leader also founded Hong Kong’s first ever cross-harbour ferry services between Tsim Sha Tsui and Central. The service was a forerunner to the Star Ferry Company, incorporated over 50 years later, in 1898.

According to the group’s website, an 1864 Hong Kong government gazette notification reveals that the British government promised Abdoolally Ebrahim and Co. compensation for the confiscation of its cargo in Canton some 25 years earlier. That would put the year of cargo confiscation at 1839, the year when China’s Daoguang Emperor appointed special imperial commissioner Lin Zexu to shut down the import of opium. Foreign traders surrendered over 20,000 chests—of those, nearly 7,000 chests belonged to Indians (Thampi & Saksena, 2009, p. 40).

The conflict between foreign traders and China intensified into the first Opium War (1839-1842), which led to China opening up five treaty ports along its coast, in Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai, where foreign merchants could live and trade freely. “Although the British government received a huge indemnity from the Chinese at the end of the war, it took a very long time to pay compensation to the individual traders – in many cases, more than 20 years,” write Thampi and Saksena, which explains the notice in the Hong Kong gazette.

From Ebrahim Noordin’s obituary, in the North China Herald (1897) we learn that Abdoolally Ebrahim and Co. was established in Guangzhou (then Canton) in 1847 – he clearly had a keen nose for business opportunities. A Shanghai government website (2017) lists Abdoolally Ebrahim as being founded in 1851. The firm’s Chinese name is 祥记 which may be translated as “Lucky Sign” and is headed, in that listing, by 翁志峣 Weng Zheyao. The address is No. 671 Sichuan Middle Road. According to the listing, the firm imported chemical materials, fibre and other commodities into China and exported raw silk, silk goods, beans, tea, cotton, cotton cloth, Chinaware, hardware and other industrial products.

Seth Ebrahim Noordin kept an eye on all developments in the commercial world. China’s foreign trade expanded by leaps and bounds after the Opium War, leading to increased trade financing and money-changing facilities, all of which spurred the opening of foreign banks in China. Most of these were branches of British banks, headquartered in London or Bombay. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank was the first to be created locally, fuelled by the immediate needs of traders in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Just ten days after the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was founded in Hong Kong, on March 3, 1865, Abdoolally Ebrahim and Co. rushed to bank with them. They are HSBC’s oldest surviving client.

‘The sum of the money put [into HSBC on March 13] 1865 was HK$14,800. By any imagination, that’s several billion dollars in today’s money,’ says Taha Ebrahim.

According to the company’s history, Ebrahim Noordin sent his brother-in-law Abdoolally Rajabali to open the Shanghai office in 1842. Seth Ebrahim Noordin’s North China Herald obituary puts the Shanghai office opening at 1874, the year Ebrahim Noordin turned 50, and the same year HSBC made its first public loan. Regardless of what the actual opening date might have been, the obituary notes that the firm carried out extensive trade in opium, yarn and sundry businesses in Shanghai and Canton. “From a petty merchant, Mr. Noordin rose rapidly by his undaunted energy, spirit, and ability…” it says.

By 1886, Seth Ebrahim Noordin had amassed such a fortune that he was able to build Najam Baug in Mumbai, a well-known community centre for the Dawoodi Bohra Muslims. By then, Noordin would have been about 62 years old. He would have likely retired to Bombay, having left the China business for good. In 1890, at the age of 66, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace in India, according to his obituary.

“He was very well known in India for his many acts of charity and the large sums, amounting to thirteen lakhs of rupees, he contributed to different charitable and benevolent institutions for people of all nationalities, and his own community in particular,” his obituary said. In 1892, Seth Ebrahim built Zainee Masjid, a large mosque for his Dawoodi Bohra community in the very centre of Bombay – “at an expense of seven lakhs”, the obituary adds.

Seth Ebrahim Noordin left his firm thriving in Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong and his sons continued the work. One son, Essabhoy Ebrahim, Taha Ebrahim’s great-grand uncle, appears to have spent time in Shanghai and made enough of an impact in the city to merit an affectionate obituary himself in the North China Herald (1897). It appears that Essabhoy was the manager of Abdoolally Ebrahim’s Shanghai branch in 1883. He had some of his father’s verve, for he made many friends in India and in China, according to the newspaper.

Under Essabhoy Ebrahim’s presumed tutelage, the firm was an active member of the community of foreign merchants, led by the British and Abdoolally Ebrahim and Co.’s name appears as a signatory to petitions and letters to various authorities that illuminate a variety of the city’s foreign merchants’ concerns. Many of these efforts point to the uneasy coexistence of a forced foreign presence on Chinese soil among resentful local citizens.

Excerpted from the forthcoming book Stray Birds on The Huangpu: A History of Indians in Shanghai, edited by Mishi Saran and Zhang Ke.

Mishi Saran is an award winning novelist and author of a travelogue on the Silk Road. She has lived in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

China, Pakistan to Look at Including Afghanistan in $57 Billion Economic Corridor

The Chinese attempt to broker talks comes in the background of Af-Pak ties being poisoned, due to Kabul accusing Islamabad of supporting Taliban insurgents fighting US-backed Kabul, to limit New Delhi’s influence in Afghanistan.

(L to R) Afghan foreign minister Salahuddin Rabbani, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and Pakistani foreign minister Khawaja Asif attend a joint news conference after the 1st China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue in Beijing, China, December 26, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee

Beijing: China and Pakistan will look at extending their $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to to Afghanistan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday, part of China‘s ambitious Belt and Road plan linking China with Asia, Europe and beyond.

China has tried to position itself as a helpful party to promote talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan, both uneasy neighbours ever since Pakistan‘s independence in 1947.

Their ties have been poisoned in recent years by Afghan accusations that Pakistan is supporting Taliban insurgents fighting the US-backed Kabul in order to limit the influence of its old rival, India, in Afghanistan.

Pakistan denies that and says it wants to see a peaceful, stable Afghanistan.

Speaking after the first trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Wang said China hoped the economic corridor could benefit the whole region and act as an impetus for development.

Afghanistan has an urgent need to develop and improve people’s lives and hopes it can join inter-connectivity initiatives, Wang told reporters, as he announced that Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed to mend their strained relations.

“So China and Pakistan are willing to look at Afghanistan, on the basis of win-win, mutually beneficial principles, using an appropriate means to extend the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan,” he added.

How that could happen needs the three countries to reach a gradual consensus, tackling easier, smaller projects first, Wang said, without giving details.

Pakistani foreign minister Khawaja Asif said his country and China were “iron brothers”, but did not directly mention the prospect of Afghanistan joining the corridor.

“The successful implementation of CPEC (China–Pakistan Economic Corridor) projects will serve as a model for enhancing connectivity and cooperation through similar projects with neighbouring countries, including Afghanistan, Iran and with central and west Asia,” he said.

India has looked askance at the project as parts of it run through Pakistan-administered Kashmir that India considers its own territory, though Wang said the plan had nothing to do with territorial disputes.

China has sought to bring Kabul and Islamabad together partly due to Chinese fears about the spread of Islamist militancy from Pakistan and Afghanistan to the unrest-prone far western Chinese region of Xinjiang.

As such, China has pushed for Pakistan and Afghanistan to improve their own ties so they can better tackle the violence in their respective countries and has also tried to broker peace talks with Afghan Taliban militants, to limited effect.

A tentative talks process collapsed in 2015.

Wang said China fully supported peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban and would continue to provide “necessary facilitation”.

The Belt and Road infrastructure drive aims to build a modern-day “Silk Road” connecting China to economies in Southeast and Central Asia by land and the Middle East and Europe by sea.

(Reuters)

Doklam Stand-Off Won’t Affect Economic, Cultural Ties, Says Chinese Official

China and India have been engaged in a standoff in the Doklam area near the Bhutan tri-junction.

China and India have been engaged in a standoff in the Doklam area near the Bhutan tri-junction. Credit: Reuters

New Delhi: The “long-standing” economic and cultural ties between India and China will not be affected due to a standoff between their armies in the Sikkim sector, a Chinese Embassy official said here today.

“India and China have enjoyed historical and cultural connections over thousands of years. And, be it trade or other relationships, we have been establishing ties. This border issue, I reckon, is temporary. And it will not affect our long-standing economic and cultural ties,” the official said on conditions of anonymity as she was not authorised to speak to media.

She was speaking on the sidelines of a pre-expo promotional event here.

The troop impasse is in the Doklam area, near Sikkim, which occurred due to tension that were built up on the border after a Chinese army construction party attempted to erect a road in the region three weeks ago.

Incidentally, India-China Economic and Cultural Council (ICEC), a non-for-profit organisation, which has been partnering with the local government of Dongguan City in China’s Guangdong Province since 2014 for annual event – 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Expo – today renewed its partnership with the Chinese side to participate in the flagship event.

“My dear Chinese friends, India is much bigger than what you see on TV screens. Don’t believe what the private channels are showing you or the commentators they bring in for their shows. Most of it is rhetoric. Believe only what the Indian government tells or any of its ministers or Foreign Ministry. What unfortunate things you have reading in media or seeing on TV (about the border issue), it is going to be pass very soon. India and China have been Friends and feel welcome in our country. And, I tell the same things to Indian delegates planning to attend this exposition, do not feel insecure,” secretary general of ICEC, Mohd Saqib said in his address at the promotional event.

The event was attended by a Chinese delegation from Dongguan City, ICEC officials, representatives of few industry associations, among others.

Deputy secretary-general of the People’s Government of Dongguan City Chen Qingsong in his address also welcomed Indian delegates to attend the exposition, while asserting that tourism inflow between India and Dongguan has been “on the rise”.

“In 2016, the expo attracted participation from 73 countries and regions along the Maritime Silk Road. A total of 104 Indian exhibitors took part in the event, reaching a sales volume of $63 million,” he added.

What’s at Stake in China’s Plan to Blow up Islands in the Mekong

If the river islands are bombed away and if the riverscape is engineered into something more like a large artificial canal, then endangered species face extinction.

A Chinese boat, with a team of geologists, surveys the Mekong River, at the border between Laos and Thailand. Credit: Jorge Silva/Reuters

The pla beuk is a beautiful behemoth; a gigantic toothless catfish with skin smooth and silky to the touch.

It’s the largest freshwater fish in the world and, once upon a time, these fish swam the great lengths of the mighty Mekong River from southern China, through Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, all the way to the river’s delta in Vietnam.

Now, there are maybe only a few hundred adult specimens still living, hidden in isolated deep pools in a few relatively undisturbed places along the river.

If you wish to catch a glimpse of one, the best bet is to cast your eyes about the murals of the Mekong’s resorts, restaurants and riverside temples, where they’re often painted in a serene satiny blue.

In folklore, pla beuk was once revered throughout the Mekong basin and those who sought to capture one for eating in days gone by would often perform special rituals and offerings before heading out to fish for it.

The traditional way to claim the life of a pla beuk was to go out in a wooden boat and throw a homemade spear or fibrous net laden with rocks at each corner. But now China wants to kill them another away – with bombs.

“Who would bomb a catfish?” I expect you’re asking.

China’s expanding trade routes

On May 14, the Chinese government launched its Silk Road Project to develop trade routes across the lands of Central Asia to Europe as well as sea routes across Asian seas.

But China’s vision of Asian trade routes is not without its own bombs. The company charged with developing a trade route along the Mekong River (the state-owned Chinese Communications Construction Company) is set to dynamite river islands on a 900-kilometre section of the river that passes from the Chinese province of Yunnan through to the river port of Luang Prabang in Laos.

On the other side of the Indochinese peninsula, in the South China Sea, China is building islands, but in the Mekong it wants to demolish islands in order to make the river more navigable. Proponents talk about the process as a “river improvement project”; a “gentling-out” of the Mekong to make it smooth and easy to handle – like the pla beuk, it might be said.

This section of the river has been navigable for decades for cargo boats carrying about 60 tonnes or more. These can safely pass between the Mekong’s islands if an experienced navigator is on board.

But China is brandishing about the idea that larger boats mean more trade and more prosperity. And it plans to open up the Yunnan-to-Luang Prabang stretch of the Mekong to 500-tonne cargo barges.

This means hundreds of river islands in China, Burma, Thailand and Laos have to be blasted away.

Route to environmental decay

While not officially part of the new Silk Road, the Mekong route is still part of China’s national goal of trade route expansion. But outside of that country, environmental groups such as Save the Mekong, International Rivers, the Burma Rivers Network are questioning the economic case for the Mekong to serve as an expanded trade route.

A protest banner against rapids blasting in the Mekong River at the border between Laos and Thailand. Credit: Jorge Silva/Reuters

They’re suggesting that a smoothed out Mekong would only increase trade between China and the Mekong nations by an insignificant amount. Many also suggest that the plan is mainly about China getting access to the fast-growing Southeast Asian market for Yunnan’s agricultural products.

Right now, it takes two weeks for Yunnan producers to get their goods to a Chinese seaport and another week to get them to big city markets in Indochina. The Mekong trade route is touted as being able to do all this within a few days.

Despite the bigger boats and the faster travel times, the economic impetus may be less important to China than political drivers. China will be lending money and providing credit lines – to the tune of US $10 billion – to the various Mekong nations. And it can leverage this debt to push forward with its own interests in the region.

If the river islands do get blasted away, a whole range of environmental consequences may cascade for hundreds of kilometres. The river may travel faster in parts, eroding riverside farms and conservation zones. It may also end up travelling slower in other parts; lowering water levels and changing the quantity and quality of sediment that will flow downstream.

The impact of this changing water flow on food and water security has not yet been calculated – if it ever could be – but the risks are enormous.

The Mekong, with its nutrient-rich sediment, is crucial for growing rice. Credit: Tuan DC/Reuters

The Mekong, with its nutrient-rich sediment, is crucial for growing rice. It’s also home to hundreds of species of edible fish. For tens of millions of people in the Mekong basin, including millions of fisherfolk who live at near-subsistence level, fish and rice constitute their daily diet.

It may be shortsighted to gamble with this invaluable resource just to effect a slight increase in international trade figures. And this kind of threat to their livelihood recently pushed Mekong fishing communities to take to their riverboats in protest.

What’s more, business people in Burma, Laos and Thailand might look forward to increased trade between their nations but they may find themselves squeezed out of their local economy if they’re undercut by cheap goods flowing down the river from China.

Rock or an island?

Then, there’s the catfish. Those who seek to “smooth-out” the Mekong generally refer to the river islands as rocks. But these “rocks” are far from lifeless.

The river islands are far from lifeless. Credit: Jorge Silva/Reuters

Many are vegetated, some with trees, and their presence in the river creates a range of pools, shoals, bars, shallows, and waterfalls, perfect for breeding countless varieties of fish, including pla beuk.

When pla beuk are young – and “ugly-cute” with prominent their whiskers – they hang around these sorts of places as they shelter from predators, feed on algae, and slowly grow. Destruction of these river islands and rocky outcrops would probably lead to the demise of juvenile fish.

At the moment, the Mekong River is known to be the most biodiverse river in the world – after the Amazon. But if the river islands are bombed away and if the riverscape is engineered into something more like a large artificial canal, then endangered species, including pla beuk, face extinction.

Alas, even if the river islands are left in peace, the fish of the Mekong face another attack from China: dams. Chinese dams have all but stopped fish migration in the upper reaches of the Mekong yet many more dams are being built every year.

If you are a fish, having your island birthplace blasted away with dynamite might seem pretty rough. But coming across a new dam is like a nuclear bomb going off.

Alan Marshall is a lecturer in environmental social sciences at the Faculty of social sciences and humanities, Mahidol University.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Nepal and China to Build $8 Billion Cross-Border Rail Link

The two countries had been in discussions for the past five months about the project, which could cost $7-8 billion and take up to eight years to complete.

A paramilitary policemen secures the venue of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China, May 14, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Beijing: Nepal is in talks with China to build a cross-border rail link that may cost up to $8 billion, and funding could be expected after Nepal formally signed up to Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, a Nepali finance ministry official said on Sunday.

Yug Raj Pandey, an under secretary at Nepal‘s Ministry of Finance, told Reuters the proposed 550 kilometre-long railway would connect China‘s western Tibet region to Nepal‘s capital of Kathmandu and will carry goods and passengers.

The Himalayan nation officially signed an agreement two days ago to be part of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious plan to build a new Silk Road, he said on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing.

“Now we are a member of [the initiative] we can get some specific project assistance from China‘s government. We expect it for the railway,” he said. “Once we connect by railway then we can increase our trade and invite more tourists to Nepal.”

Pandey said the two countries had been in discussions for the past five months about the project, which could cost $7-8 billion and take up to eight years to complete.

He said Nepal planned to start preparing a detailed project report for the railway, and that they had yet to decide how much funding they will seek from China.

The railway will travel over 400 kilometres in China to the Nepal border, and then about another 150 kilometres from the Nepali border to Kathmandu, he said.

“Our first priority is railway, and second will be hydropower projects and cross-border transmission lines between Nepal and China,” he said.

China last year agreed to consider building a railway into Nepal and to start a feasibility study for a free trade agreement with impoverished, landlocked Nepal, which has been trying to lessen its dependence on its other big neighbour India.

Pandey declined to comment about India’s opposition to parts of the Belt and Road initiative, in particular an economic corridor China is building in Pakistan.

China has touted what it formally calls the Belt and Road initiative as a new way to boost global development since Xi unveiled the plan in 2013, aiming to expand links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond underpinned by billions of dollars in infrastructure investment.

China Pledges $124 Billion for Silk Road Plan, Says Everyone Welcome

China has touted what it formally calls the Belt and Road initiative as a new way to boost development and trade links since unveiling the plan in 2013.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet meets Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China May 13, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $124 billion on Sunday for his ambitious new Silk Road plan, saying everyone was welcome to join what he envisioned would be a path for peace and prosperity for the world.

China has touted what it formally calls the Belt and Road initiative as a new way to boost development since Xi unveiled the plan in 2013, aiming to expand links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond underpinned by billions of dollars in infrastructure investment.

“We should build an open platform of cooperation and uphold and grow an open world economy,” Xi told the opening of a summit on the new Silk Road.

“We should jointly create an environment that will facilitate opening up and development, establish a fair, equitable and transparent system of international trade and investment rules,” he added.

Xi pledged a massive funding boost to the new Silk Road, including:

– an extra 100 billion yuan ($14.50 billion) into the existing Silk Road Fund

– 250 billion yuan in loans from China Development Bank

– 130 billion yuan in loans from Export-Import Bank of China

– 60 billion yuan in aid to developing countries and international institutions in new Silk Road countries

– encouraging financial institutions to expand their overseas yuan fund businesses to the tune of 300 billion yuan

– 2 billion yuan in emergency food aid

– $1 billion to a South–South Cooperation fund

– $1 billion for cooperation projects in countries on the new Silk Road

He did not give a timeframe.

Leaders from 29 countries are attending the forum, which ends on Monday.

China formally calls the scheme the Belt and Road initiative in English.

Some Western diplomats have expressed unease about both the summit and the plan as a whole, seeing it as an attempt to promote Chinese influence globally.

China has rejected criticism of the plan and the summit, saying the scheme is open to all, is a win-win and aimed only at promoting prosperity.

People take pictures in front of a “Golden Bridge on Silk Road” installation, set up ahead of the Belt and Road Forum, outside the National Convention Centre in Beijing, China May 11, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Stringer

“What we hope to create is a big family of harmonious co-existence,” Xi said, adding pursuit of the initiative will not resort to outdated geopolitical manoeuvring.

“What we hope to achieve is a new model of win-win cooperation.”

Some of China’s most reliable allies and partners will attend the forum, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

There are also several European leaders attending, including the prime ministers of Spain, Italy, Greece and Hungary.

($1 = 6.8972 Chinese yuan)

(Reuters)