Who could have bet until a month ago to see the athletes of the two Koreas parade together under a single flag? When the two athletes, North Korean and South Korean, lit the flame of the stadium together Pyenongchang Winter Olympics the entire Asian continent breathed a sigh of relief.
It is useless to hide, the only truth is to recognize that, if it hadn't been for China, it would have been impossible to obtain a return to the crisis with North Korea, sealed by participation in the Olympics which are being held in South Korea. And, more concretely, the meeting between the two government delegations created the basis for an historic summit ten years after the last official visit. Two Governments that have negotiated directly, without the intermediation of the USA, but with a crucial and not obvious role of China.
The presence of a delegation financed by South Korea itself with over two million euros and made up of 229 cheerleaders and 140 artists, it saw the efforts of the Government join those of the Olympic Committee which will subsidize the 22 Pyongyang athletes in the competition. The solution was the only possible one to avoid violating the international sanctions to which North Korea was subjected for its irresponsible and belligerent behavior which kept the whole world in suspense last summer.
So the Chinese New Year ushers in the Year of the Dog e Russia strengthens its role with "loyalty" to a single mission: that of expanding its role as a superpower, far from any political-religious mix that distracts it from using the best weapon ever, namely that of strengthening commercial relations and therefore the ability to build strong business relationships impervious to present, past and future conflicts.
So, while the US gets lost in domestic political disputes and they waste time and precious "land", in terms of market shares, also due to a difficult legacy of Obama's foreign policies which actually have not shown to be far-sighted especially in the Middle Eastern context, China advances determined and insidious.
No wonder then the announcement of an impressive joint Russian-Chinese investment fund for the acquisition of a major stake in the upcoming IPO of the Saudi oil giant ARAMCO, which sees the chill in relations between Russia and China shelved. The latter, together with Saudi Arabia, will try to stem the excessive power that shale-oil is guaranteeing to American producers on the world energy market.
In the case of China, rising inflation remains a bogeyman which could force the Chinese Central Bank to accelerate its rate hike maneuvers, causing a slowdown in investments and economic growth. At the same time, Chinese expansion is not satisfied with forging new alliances in the Middle East because even in Central Asia it is profiting from the retreat of Russia (which is less present due to the sanctions) with investments and supplies, including military ones, in countries such as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, whose energy resources are attracting growing interest from the European Union, India and China.
But the positioning in Central Asia is also enriched by another important element thanks to an impressive project, which also includes a military base in Afghanistan, with the "usual" peculiar initiative linked to the expansion of the new Silk Road which, in this case, sees as a priority that of creating a barrier against Islamic terrorism in a moment of serious crisis in the US positioning in the area and of relations with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, inside, after the mid-February stock price correction which has seen the authorities launch investigations and urge pension funds to support local stock markets, China has launched - from March 1 - measures to contain and control financial investments from abroad in specific sectors, from hotels to newspapers and digital media, also including water and strategic resources for the country such as the war industry. The purpose is protect any sector considered “sensitive” for the control activity of the central government.
And in this new climate of peace under the sign of the Chinese lunar year, while Abe in Japan reconfirms Kuroda at the helm of the Central Bank and the Winter Olympics continue their path of peace between impervious and dangerous sports, everything flows on the global financial markets in which the VIX continues to garner the attention of operators with erratic movements to which we hadn't been used to for some time. These are movements that make everyone more cautious in anticipation of the true black swan that hasn't passed yet but is considered as inevitable under the sign of a Chinese Year, where the Superpower will strengthen "faithful and loyal" to itself and to a geopolitical role that is not very evident and shouted on social networks but substantiated by concrete facts that attract investments and increase a commercial role that is worth economic stability and social, a result not just given the times.
