China took control of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (tapi) pipeline project on Wednesday, effectively grabbing the modern “Silk Road” from a fatigued United States.

China and Turkmenistan signed a deal giving Beijing control over the Dauletabad and Galkynysh gas fields, which will be the primary sources for the pipeline when the mammoth project—spanning from Turkmenistan to India—is completed in 2017.

The $7.6 billion tapi project had been heavily backed by Washington since the idea was conceived in the mid 1990s, though it’s unclear how much of that total the U.S. government and American companies invested before walking away. The project repeatedly stalled because of instability in the region, and Washington seems to have encouraged China’s takeover, reckoning that it will be more convenient to cut its losses, and let Beijing get bogged down in Afghanistan’s turmoil.

As China continues to industrialize, it is bent on consumption. In 2009, China overtook the U.S. to become the world’s largest energy consumer, which is why energy projects like tapi are so appealing to Beijing. Thanks in large part to the U.S.’s grotesquely bloated trade deficit with China, the Chinese have cash to spend—trillions of dollars of it. So they are investing in projects all over the globe.

There was a time not long ago when the U.S. was able to complete the projects—like digging the Panama Canal—that no other power could. Afghanistan’s mayhem may end up making the tapi project as much a drain on Beijing as it was on Washington, but under the framework of the Beijing-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization—which is set to soon grant membership to Afghanistan, India and Pakistan—China may be able to accomplish what the U.S. could not.

China is only just beginning to really flex its economic muscle, and events like its quiet takeover of the tapi pipeline reveal a shift in the global balance of power that is advancing rapidly. Very soon, American influence will be not just frustrated by rising foreign powers, but altogether obliterated from global politics.

To understand more, read Russia and China in Prophecy.