The Great Game Changer: Belt and Road Intiative (BRI; OBOR)

[krst]

There are three great space-faring nations in the world. Yet, only two (China and the U.S.) are prosperous. Why is Russia a laggard (e.g. can't build five-axis machine tools, supercomputers, and semiconductor processors)?

An interesting problem is the Prisoner's Dilemma. How does China get Russia to build Amur River-bridges that would benefit both nations in trade? The Russians are strictly-logical people and cannot seem to transcend the bound of the Prisoner's Dilemma. Russian logic dictates that China will benefit more from Amur River-bridges. Thus, Russia has refused to agree to building bridges across the Sino-Russian border for decades. This is a lose-lose proposition, but perfectly logical under the Prisoner's Dilemma.

China and the United States play a much more complicated game. The Prisoner's Dilemma is an idealized academic problem. In the real world, the Prisoner's Dilemma surfaces repeatedly in multiple iterations. The Russians are pretty mindless simpletons and always play the non-cooperation card.

In contrast, China always play the cooperation card. In the majority of the cases, the United States reciprocate with cooperation. However, the United States will occasionally play the non-cooperation card (e.g. impose tariffs on Chinese solar panels). Intelligently, China responds with a non-cooperate response (e.g. ban all U.S. polysilicon suppliers to Chinese solar panel manufacturers). Due to Chinese retaliation, the U.S. makes the correct move and reverts back to cooperation (e.g. cut tariffs on Chinese solar panels in half from 30% to 15%).

The following "Nice Guys Finish First" video explains the dynamics of the Prisoner's Dilemma when played in multiple iterations as in real life. As you watch the video, remember the Russians always play "defect." China always plays "cooperate" initially and moves to "Tit for Tat" as a long-term strategy. The United States mostly plays "cooperate" with an occasional "defect" against China.

housewife

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Eastern Europeans are indeed extremely logical people. That means they think too straight for Chinese. Chinese are flexible. Eastern Europeans just believe that if you bang your head harder against the brick wall, eventually the wall will go down. Chinese try to climb or tunnel the wall.

That is why Eastern Europeans are really good at "deep" research that explores very hard concepts in a pure field, while Chinese tend to like interdisciplinary, broad fields more.

 

[krst]

The Chinese in general want everyone to be happy. That is their interdisciplinary ways.

 

[Nan Yang]

Eastern Europeans are indeed extremely logical people. That means they think too straight for Chinese. Chinese are flexible. Eastern Europeans just believe that if you bang your head harder against the brick wall, eventually the wall will go down. Chinese try to climb or tunnel the wall.

That is why Eastern Europeans are really good at "deep" research that explores very hard concepts in a pure field, while Chinese tend to like interdisciplinary, broad fields more.

Not just Eastern European vs Chinese but also all European vs North East Asian.

 

[krst]

In general, Asians help in continuing the same outcomes of house life and every countries in life for hundreds of years, including working and language. Working is no longer putting together a physical item but incorporating each persons way of living and how each of us does things to match it to society. There is no individual thinkings. I do believe there are better ways of living for yourself. Unfortunately, b/c all countries are involved in keeping all the same things of life going, we just keep repeating the same mistakes and "frustrations" of life over and over....again. Same repetitions and the same poor and the same rich generation after generation, physically and mentally repeating.

 

[onebyone]

PPP is just one out of many ways of measuring prosperity.

There is a Prosperity Index hereunder which evaluates prosperity based on:

Economy, Entrepreneurial Opportunity, Governance, Education, Health, Safety and Security, Personal Freedom, Social Capital
http://www.prosperity.com/#!/ranking

2014 ranking:
China @ 54
Russia @68
Saudi Arabia @47

So some of the comments from our compatriots were right. There is no China-bragging here. China is better than Russia but not by a lot. You may group the above 3 countries in the same bracket by and large.

... err where is India?

@ 102

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Not just Eastern European vs Chinese but also all European vs North East Asian.

Japanese are better at deep, traditional research. Just check out the research of Chinese professors and Japanese professors - most Chinese professors do things that are broad and interdisciplinary, while Japanese professors do traditional projects.

In Europeans, I think that British are moving towards interdisciplinary subjects, but the most interdisciplinary are Americans, who strongly emphasize that route. Alot of the top research going on is at the boundary between traditional fields.

 

[krst]

I believe each country has their own way of coming out to be the same way of life, just alittle bit of sugar. (in general) The bible has not changed for thousands of years still teaching the same things but I believe their are people who are more for humanity than for a book. But I believe there are people who are most comfortable with the bible whether true or not. Our leaders all have the same goal in mind which is the outcome of the bible in a different way. sickening.

 

[nalan]

Everyone could be a teacher to a "failer"

 

[ArsalanKhan21]

Air Defense: China Gets The Russian Long Arm

Air Defense: China Gets The Russian Long Arm

January 24, 2015: Russia recently revealed that it had sold China six battalions of its new S-400 anti-aircraft missile system. Each battalion will cost $500 million and includes training as well as spare parts and additional missiles. Each S-400 battalion has eight launchers, each with two missiles, plus a control center and radar and 16 missiles available as reloads. All equipment is mobile. S-400 is also known as the S-300PMU-3, SA-21 or Triumf and was renamed S-400 because it turned out to be far more than just another upgrade of the S-300 and was considered sufficiently different to warrant a name upgrade. Russia deployed its first S-400 battalion in 2010, around Moscow.

The S-400 is similar to the U.S. Patriot and pays particular attention to electronic countermeasures that the Americans might have, or be developing. The missiles are also physically larger and have longer range as well as being very expensive. Russia began seeking export sales in 2011. The S-400 missiles weigh 1.8 tons each and are 8.4 meters (26 feet) long and about 50cm (20 inches) in diameter. The missiles have a range of some 400 kilometers, and can hit targets as high as 31,000 meters (100,000 feet). The missile has a 145.5 kg (320 pound) warhead. The target acquisition radar has a range of 700 kilometers. The missiles are built to last for 15 years before needing refurbishment.

The S-400 has over twice the range of the U.S. Patriot, weighs twice as much and claims the ability to detect stealthy aircraft. The S-400 also has an anti-missile capability, which is limited to shorter range (3,500 kilometers) ballistic missiles that are within 60 kilometers of an S-400 launcher. That would mean a warhead coming in at about 5,000 meters a second (the longer the range of a ballistic missile, the higher its re-entry speed.)

The S-400 system actually has two types of missiles, one of them being smaller, with a shorter range (120 kilometers). These are deployed four to a launcher, like all other S-300 systems. The larger missile actually has two versions, one with a range of 250 kilometers and a more expensive one with a range of 400 kilometers. The S-400 has no combat experience, but U.S. intelligence believes that the tests these systems have undergone indicate it is a capable air defense weapon. Just how capable won't be known until it actually gets used in combat.

Russia plans to buy up to 200 launchers (each with two or four missiles) by 2015, and phase out the older S-300 and S-200 systems. This would mean deploying at least 18 battalions by 2017 and 56 by 2020 (or organized into 28 battalions containing two battalions each). China plans to deploy its first S-400 battalion opposite Taiwan. That one battalion can cover all Taiwanese air space. The next battalions will be deployed to deal with Japan, South Korea and Vietnam.

 

[Imran Khan]

ok good news congs china russia .happy shooting guys

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

The source is not reliable.

 

[j20blackdragon]

The air defense system of the 052D is already more advanced than anything produced in Russia, including S-400.

 

[Saifullah Sani]

Warming ties between China and Russia are giving a big boost to Chinese imports of Russian oil, to the chagrin of OPEC nations jockeying for a slice of China's market. Faced with falling prices and lower demand from the U.S., oil-exporting nations are increasingly putting their hopes in China's still-robust demand for crude. But Saudi Arabia and other big producers like Venezuela have seen such sales drop as Moscow's isolation from the West over Ukraine prompts it to turn to Beijing, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The death of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah adds a measure of uncertainty to OPEC's oil policies, which boosted prices in global oil markets after the news early Friday, though analysts say the kingdom is unlikely to change its strategy and reduce production. That is despite a global glut of crude that is fueling new rivalry between OPEC and Russia for China's market—as well as among OPEC nations themselves.

Officials of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which declined to cut oil production last year, reasoned that maintaining high production levels would protect market share in crucial importing nations.

But Chinese customs data released Friday show that China's crude imports from some big OPEC nations have plummeted, while imports from Russia surged 36% in 2014. Meanwhile, imports from Saudi Arabia fell 8% and those from Venezuela dropped 11%.

As American companies have pumped soaring amounts of oil from shale, U.S. imports of Saudi Arabia's crude oil and petroleum products have also fallen, dropping to 25.6 million barrels a month in October, from more than 42 million barrels a year earlier.

The changing pattern in China's imports is one result of Russian President Vladimir Putin turning to China as an economic lifeline as Moscow is shunned by the West over the Ukraine crisis.

For the original full-length article go to: Russia, OPEC Jostle to Meet China Oil Demand - WSJ

 

[TaiShang]

China is in the process of building up its strategic reserves and filling them up. So there will be increasing demand although this may not mean an equally increasing consumption.