back door to China during the Second World War, when the Americans trucked supplies over the Burma Road to Chiang Kai-shek’s besieged forces at Chungking. In the 1990s, Chinese scholars began discussing what they termed “the Malacca Dilemma,” the fact that nearly all China’s shipping and energy supplies depended on the narrow Straits of Malacca, a potential chokepoint that could be blockaded by the American or other navies. Beijing wanted a new Burma Road, a permanent one, and much else.
