Considering the upwardsloping expected long-term demand trajectory for Asian countries, the attraction that this project might hold is not difficult to fathom.
Reading from right to left, the green line is almost uniformly upwardsloping as we add antipodal countries until reaching Japan, and almost uniformly downward sloping for more equatorial countries.
In their vivid imaginations, they see upward-sloping supply curves, downward-sloping demand curves, and all the implications that arise from these and other assumptions.