Daily Caller Piece: China Just Expanded Its Global Influence Right Under America's Nose

[Note: This story is also published at the Daily Caller]

Everywhere you look these days, China is making inroads in its efforts to lock up control of critical energy and energy minerals supplies. From fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal to energy minerals critical to the manufacture of wind turbines, solar arrays and electric vehicles, Xi Jinping’s government has been systematically locking up supplies and control of supply chains in recent years.

Much of China’s efforts in this regard have been facilitated via its Belt and Road Initiative, in which China funds developing nations’ infrastructure via loans and levers the new relationships created to gain advantage in negotiations over contracts to lock up resources for its own use. The results to date are more than impressive.