obviously alot of people are sleeping and talking cock here. Here the REAL inside story from VIPs and people involved in the deal. China agreed to built it for strategic reasons. that's all. half the world oil pass through the Malacca straits. Oil destined for China, Korea, Japan, taiwan. By building the Kra canal, it would have absolute control over the movement of oil bypassing the straits and singapore which is obviously subjected to uncle sam's influence. only country with influence is myanmar which is anti US and pro china. with one fell swop , China has control over Japan, Korea, Taiwan economy by bypassing the straits, malaysia , indonesia control and south china seas and US seventh fleet!!!. Even the muslim countries like malaysia and indonesia and muslim terrorists and pirates would heve no bargaining chip once the Kra canal is completed. myanmar and thailand are buddhist and would not care about the these peoples pushing and threatening about cutting the oil supplies as in teh past, which myanmar and africa has a lot. Now Japan and taiwan are going to be begging for mercy. singapore is going down as a collateral. China just don't give two shits about sinkieland. all this info from the very top. china would have no problem building the small canal after building the 5 gorges dam(largest dam in the world). piece of cake for them, according to one of teh officials.