Gobi Desert in the eastern Gobi Desert, where rainfall is heavier and may sustain livestock). In Mongolia, grasslands have been degraded by goats, which are raised by nomadic herders as source of cashmere wool. Large copper deposits are being mined by Rio Tinto Group. The mine was and remains controversial. There was significant opposition in Mongolia's parliament to the terms under which the mine will proceed, and some are calling for the terms to be renegotiated. Specifically, the contention revolves primarily around the question of whether negotiations were fair (Rio Tinto is far better resourced) and whether Rio Tinto will pay adequate
The Battle of China and less often as "Nips"—blockading and occupation of China's ports is discussed and the rebuilding of China's destroyed rail system called the work of "slave labor". "New China"—here used to reference the Republican government-in-exile in Chongqing—is shown as connected to the outside world only through the "narrow-gauge" Indo-Chinese railway and the "camel caravans" from Russia across the Gobi Desert. (The railway is described as "limited" and "too near Jap territory to be safe", with French compliance in closing the line for Japan omitted.) The construction of the Burma Road between Lashio in Burma and the truck road to Kunming is