Matt Bevan

The biggest problem for the new port of Hambantota, however, was that even if they could get the underwater rocks and elephants under control, nobody actually wanted to use it.

Especially when Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, which is just 260 kilometres away, had a very well-developed port that was more than capable of handling all of the country's trade requirements.

The multi-billion dollar Mahinda Rajapaksa Port in Hambantota was a white elephant being periodically attacked by grey ones.

The Sri Lankan government had taken out massive loans to build it, which they then struggled to pay back.

But that was okay, because they quickly found a buyer.

A Chinese government owned company bought a 99 year lease of the port and it wasn't the only one they bought.

Recently, it's been expanding, snapping up ports in Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.

The company, called China Merchants, owns a lot of profitable ports, but in the last decade it's been buying up ports like that one in Sri Lanka that make no financial sense at all.

15 years after this port opened, most ships still just sail right past it on their way between Africa and Asia, so it doesn't make a lot of revenue.

The only reason anyone would want to own it is because one day in the future you might want to exert some influence over the traffic going past you through the Indian Ocean.

So, Xi Jinping buys a port on a key global shipping route.

In other, more chessy words, Knight to B5.

Seems to make sense, right?

So, what's his next move?

Well, let me take you to an exotic alien landscape high on the rooftop of South America.

We're in Bolivia at the world's largest salt flat.

Beneath the salt pan surface, a vast buried treasure valued at more than one trillion US dollars.

It's not gold.

It's not silver.

It's lithium.