I say, isn't Morocco on the Strait of Gibralter?*
From Fortune, July 3:
After the United States passed new subsidies designed to boost domestic electric vehicle production and cut into Beijing’s supply chain dominance, Chinese manufacturers began investing in an unlikely place: Morocco.
In the rolling hills near Tangiers and in industrial parks near the Atlantic Ocean, they have announced plans for new factories to make parts for EVs that may qualify for $7,500 credits to car buyers in the United States.
Similar investments have been announced in other countries that share free trade agreements with the United States, including South Korea and Mexico.
But few countries have seen the kind of boom that Morocco has.
At least eight Chinese battery makers have announced new investments in the North African kingdom since President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the $430 billion U.S. law designed to fight climate change, according to an Associated Press tally.
By moving operations to U.S. trading partners like Morocco, Chinese players that have long dominated the battery supply chain are seeking a pathway to cash in on increasing demand from American carmakers like Tesla and General Motors, said Kevin Shang, a senior battery analyst at the consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.
“Chinese companies definitely don’t want to miss this big party,” he said.
The United States and European Union have both imposed major new tariffs on Chinese vehicle imports since May. The United States also finalized eligibility rules governing the tax credits in May. The latter limit companies with ties to U.S. adversaries, but give carmakers time to reduce their reliance on China. To qualify for the subsidies, carmakers cannot source critical minerals or battery parts from manufacturers in which China and other “foreign entities of concern” control more than 25% of the company or its board.
Critics say the rules are a giveaway to China and will extend its EV dominance. The Biden administration says the rules pave the way for billions in investment in EV manufacturing in the United States.
Between East and West
In Morocco, a largely agrarian economy where the median income is $2,150 a month, giant industrial parks full of American, European and Chinese component makers have sprung up in the rural outskirts of Tangiers, Kenitra and El Jadida.Expanding on infrastructure that has made Morocco a car manufacturing hub, they hope to meet growing demand and overcome rules designed to exclude them from the incentives the Inflation Reduction Act is injecting into the U.S. car market, the world’s second-largest....
....MUCH MORE
*Blowing the dust off our gazetteer we see that yes, yes it is.
I'm beginning to see a pattern here.*
And the Panama Canal:
China Will Help Panama Secure the Canal Against Terrorists
And
all of a sudden you have China on-site on three of the world's MAJOR
shipping chokepoints and what could very well become the fourth at the
Bering Straits.
....It's just that, as we've seen over the last year, supply lines are fragile, a weak spot even without unfriendlies doing an interdiction.I suppose somebody should keep an eye on Morocco to note if the Chinese set up camp on the Strait of Gibraltar.
Should someone actively attempt to halt transportation it would make the Ever Given snafu look like child's play. As just one example, China has been very active in extending their belt and road initiative in Panama, including a $1.4 billion bridge over the canal and rail and other infrastructure.
And that's just one potential flashpoint. The Chinese influence in Brazil, hitherto based on VALE and iron ore could potentially go exponential as Brazil expands/modernizes its shipping and rail infrastructure. And then there's Australia...and...
The most amazing thing that has been pointed out over the last couple months is that China's base on Djibouti's Gulf of Aden coast, at the approaches to the Bab al-Mandab chokepoint into the Red Sea, gives them the perfect location to monitor Houthi action and American reaction:
—China Officially Sets Up Its First Overseas Base in Djibouti, The Diplomat
And April 2024 Why the U.S. and China Suddenly Care About a Port in Southern Chile":
And all of a sudden (after years of development) China is hanging out at the entrance to some very strategic sea lanes. In fact, the only major chokepoint not seeing a Chinese development that comes to mind is the .