Putin Plays Soviet Classics On Badly Tuned Piano During China Silk Road Summit

Sunday’s celebration of China’s grand $1 trillion Silk Road infrastructure plan, three years in the making (detailed earlier), had several somewhat bizarre subplots.
First, just hours before the summit opened, North Korea launched its latest ballistic missile, provoking Beijing and further testing the patience of China, its chief (former) ally. Ironically, the United States had complained to China on Friday over the inclusion of a North Korean delegation at the event. Second, in a sign that China’s rampant, credit-fuelled growth is making some just a tad uneasy, some Western diplomats expressed unease about both the summit and the plan as a whole, seeing it as an attempt to promote Chinese influence globally according to Reuters. Third, and the biggest surprise of the day, was India, the world’s fastest growing nation and the second most populous in the world, which did not even bother to send an official delegation to Beijing and instead criticised China’s global initiative, warning of an “unsustainable debt burden” for countries involved. Meanwhile, in a more entertaining interlude, Russian President Vladimir Putin, also present in Beijing for the Silk Road event, decided to show off his softer side when he sat down to play piano on Sunday.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on May 14, 2017.