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

[UKBengali]

Its quite simple, China, probably wanted complete TOT on engines n Russia doesn't want to share this critical technology.

China is likely to be comparable to Russian engine tech by 2025. In fact probably earlier than this if you look at the current engine base they have and the amount of simultaneous programs China has right now.

They should pool their resources and jointly develop the engine, even if it is a little inferior than
what they can get from the West. This way they both propel their civilian engine tech further closer to the US/ UK.

 

[Beidou2020]

I think High-bypass turbofan jet engine is the most difficult technology to develop.

Much more difficult than developing advanced microprocessors or PC/mobile operating systems.

Can anyone think of a more difficult technological feat than developing your own high-bypass turbofan jet engine?

 

[TaiShang]

Russia, China to boost finance, aviation & space partnerships
Published time: February 17, 2015 13:39

Reuters / How Hwee Yong

China and Russia plan to extend their strategic partnership in finance, aviation and space as well as improve trade and economic cooperation, said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping.

"It is essential to improve practical cooperation, as both sides will be increasing and expanding trade, and innovation," Cheng said during a news conference in Beijing as quoted by Rossiya Segodnya.

Trade between the two countries was worth $95.3 billion in 2014. China and Russia expect it to reach $200 billion by 2020.

The two countries will continue to expand cooperation in aviation, space and nuclear energy; he said adding that China will actively cooperate with Russia in finance to seek new forms of interaction.

"We believe that our potential and capacity are far from exhausted," Cheng said.

Moscow and Beijing have been boosting cooperation in various fields, including the energy sector in which the countries signed a huge $400 billion gas deal.




Russia and China seal historic $400bn gas deal

Most recently, the two countries decided to create a joint rating agency that’ll counter balance the existing Western ‘Big Three’ of S&P, Moody’s and Fitch.

READ MORE: China and Russia to launch new credit rating agency in 2015

The decision to switch to local currencies in trading settlements is a major move towards reducing dependence on the US dollar and creating an alternative within the global financial system.

In May 2014 Russia and China announced a joint project for a long-range aircraft worth $13 billion. The jet is expected to occupy a large market share both in Russia and China challenging Boeing and Airbus.

In February Russia and China agreed to cooperate on satellite navigation. The two countries along with their BRICS partner India are expected to discuss the creation of a joint orbiting station at the BRICS summit in Ufa in April, according to experts from Russian Military Industrial Commission.

@vostok

 

[TimeTraveller]

Nice.......

 

[tore]

China could be the big winner of the Ukraine crisis - Business Insider

China could be the big winner of the Ukraine crisis

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Photo by Greg Bowker - Pool/Getty ImagesChinese President Xi Jinping raises his glass for a toast during his talk before lunch at SkyCity Grand Hotel on November 21, 2014 in Auckland, New Zealand.

The crisis in Ukraine has plunged US-Russian relations to their lowest point since the Cold War.

Crimea is now Russian territory. Although prisoners of war have been exchanged and both sides have agreed to pull back heavy weapons, the accord signed on February 12 in Minsk has failed so far to stop the fighting in Eastern Ukraine.

The city of Debaltseve has fallen into the hands of the separatists. On Sunday a bomb exploded at a rally in Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv killing two – the suspects are accused by the Ukrainian government as having been trained in Russia.

For Washington, the conflict between the West and Russia has become much more than a conflict over Ukraine’s territorial integrity. It has become a provocation to the Western liberal international order that the US worked hard to create at the end of the Cold War; an order based on democracy, the rule of law, and free markets. Russia has not gone down this road. Instead, it is now challenging the European security order and most particularly the Eastern European states.

Talk of a new Cold War has emerged in Washington political circles. Similar views are echoed in Moscow. Konstantin Sonin, a professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, says of the Kremlin’s thinking: “The country [Russia] is on a holy mission. It’s at war with the United States.”

In pushing to impose sanctions against Moscow (and possibly arm the Ukrainians), US policymakers seem to have given little thought to the long-term geopolitical impact of this rift on relations with China.

If there is no viable solution to the Ukrainian conflict, we believe that the unintended “winner” of the crisis could well be China.

Here’s why.

Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters



China rising
According the International Monetary Fund, China has now surpassed the United States as the world’s number one economy as measured by purchasing power parity. Beijing is also engaged in a major military buildup. Like other emerging great powers in history - especially the US in the late 19th century - China seeks to emerge as the dominant power in its own region.

Russia is helping to fuel China’s rise. If the US and Europe don’t mend their adversarial relationship with Russia, China will be in a position to counteract the US even sooner.

Russia’s economy is tanking because of collapsing oil prices and Western sanctions. The World Bank now projects that Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) will decline by 2.9% in 2015. And the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development estimates that Russia’s economy will shrink by close to five per cent this year.

In a desperate attempt to stave off economic disaster, Russia is turning towards Asia to sell its natural resources, obtain loans and forge new military arrangements.

In May 2014, for example, Moscow and Beijing signed a US $400 billion gas deal. In November 2014, another framework agreement for gas supply to China was signed. In September 2014, then-US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel pointed out that China and Russia are jointly developing new weapons systems. Russia’s trade with China is expected to increase to $100 billion this year from $90 billion in 2014.

Dmitry Azarov/Kommersant Photo/GettyMeeting of the Chinese President Xi Jinping and the president of Russia Vladimir Putin before the opening ceremony at the Expo Center at the fourth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit on May 20, 2014 in Shanghai, China.



Faustian bargain
The two-fold logic of this rapprochement is simple: China needs resources and Russia has them. Russia needs markets, foreign investment, and money and China has them.

Geopolitical interests also overlap. China does not want the South China Sea dominated by Americans. Russia does not want the West – the US and Europe - to penetrate what Moscow perceives as “its sphere of influence.” In short, Russia and China do not want a world dominated by the US. That much is clear.

At the same time, China and Russia are geopolitical rivals. Indeed for Russia, its links to China are a Faustian bargain.

In the short term, Russia gains by selling oil, gas, and other natural resources to China. In the longer term, however, the consequence is to further strengthen the emergence of a China that seems fated to be Russia’s long-term competitor. Moscow is helping China to grow economically and become more powerful even as Russia itself is becoming weaker.

Sasha Mordovets/Getty ImagesPresident of Russia Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping toast with vodka during a signing ceremony on May 21, 2014 in Shanghai, China.



Realpolitik
European leaders are rightly alarmed by the situation in Ukraine. The casualties are mounting and Ukrainian economy is on the verge of collapse. A solution to the crisis needs to be found.

There is a lot of talk, especially in Washington, about the “post-Soviet space” - the former republics of the Soviet Union (like Ukraine) that gained independence following the Soviet collapse. US and European policymakers need to remember that the post-Soviet space was also the pre-Soviet space - the Tsarist Russian empire. Russia still sees itself as the dominant power in a region in which history and culture give it special interests. While the redrawing of Europe’s map, as Vice President Biden puts it, is unacceptable, it is a fact on the ground that will be difficult to undo.

Despite understandable condemnations of the Russian moves, negotiations with Moscow should continue.

Longer term, the US needs to think about how to be a triangular great power. Most US strategic thinkers agree that it is China, not Russia, that poses the most significant 21st century geopolitical challenge to the United States. Strategy 101 would then dictate that Russia should be a counterweight to rising China.

But at the moment US (and European) policy is pushing Russia into China’s arms. This, we would argue, is a geopolitical mistake. If the US-Russia rift is not healed, it is China that will be the winner.



Read more: The real winner of the Ukraine crisis could be China

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Well, now they have to consider China + Russia as the challenge of one entity.

 

[war is peace]

Lol

 

[TaiShang]

Article says nothing new.

Thank you to the White House for enabling more strategic room for maneuver by actively supporting "pro-US troops" of Ukraine.

Thank you to the White House for training, equipping and supporting the 'now' radical but formerly "moderate' anti-Syria forces.

Thank you to the White House for spying on even the closest Western allies.

China-Russia strategic partnership would poised to improve with or without outside geopolitical developments. But the US policies have just given it a boost.

***

Chinese, Russian FMs stress on primacy of UNSC in conflict-resolution
February 24, 2015,
The Bricks Post

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi(L) meets with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York, the United States, on Feb. 23, 2015 [Xinhua]

Chinese and Russian Foreign Ministers Wang Yi and Sergey Lavrov have vowed to work together to fulfill their responsibilities as permanent members of the UN Security Council in maintaining international peace and security.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the open debate initiated by China at the UNSC headquarters in New York on Monday.

Wang said “frequent contacts of the two countries’ leaders have ensured that China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership keeps developing at a high level” according to Chinese state-run agency Xinhua.

The two diplomats also reaffirmed that Beijing and Moscow will “maintain high-level exchanges, continue to support each other, and strengthen communication and coordination on significant international and regional hotspot issues”.

Lavrov has warned that the UN faces the risk of being irrelevant, if its fails to “overcome accumulated systemic problems and correct them before it is too late”.

“We believe it is necessary to immediately take decisive measures to reject double standards in world politics, to return the Security Council the role of a leading body on coordination of collective approaches relying upon respect for the cultural and civilizational diversity of the modern world, democratization of international relations,” Lavrov said at the UNSC debate on Monday.

He was echoed by his Chinese counterpart Wang, who argued that no country in the world is entitled to impose its own will on others or to topple legitimate governments of other countries.

“We should make sure that justice, not hegemony, will prevail in the world,” Wang said in an apparent jibe at the US.

“In China’s view, any unilateral move that bypass the Security Council is illegal and illegitimate,” the Chinese Foreign Minister added. “The Security Council needs to take more precautionary measures to forestall conflict and act in a timely manner to stop warfare so as to restore peace and promote reconstruction as early as possible.”

Russia and China have earlier criticized the US air strikes in Syria and Iraq without the express approval of Damascus or a mandate from the UN Security Council.

 

[TaiShang]

Russia, China Sign Satellite Navigation Agreement
February 10, 2015 - By GPS World staff



Russia and China have signed a cooperation agreement on satellite navigation, a Russian Space Agency spokesperson told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

Roscosmos chief Igor Komarov met with Xu Dazhe, the leader of China’s National Space Administration, on an official visit in Beijing.

“The first provision to set up a committee and a protocol were signed during the first working session. Igor Komarov and Xu Dazhe discussed issues of bilateral cooperation in the field of electronic components for rocket construction and building rocket engines,” the spokesperson said.

A Russian-Chinese committee on satellite navigation was established in October 2014 at the meeting between Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yang.

In November, China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) and the Russian GLONASS nonprofit partnership agreed to establish a joint venture to promote worldwide services based on GLONASS and BeiDou.

Russia and China also recently completed joint reconnaissance for the placement of GLONASS differential correction and monitoring stations in the Chinese cities of Urumqi and Changchun. Each country is expected to accommodate three such facilities.

 

[TaiShang]

​Chinese diplomat lectures West on Russia’s ‘real security concerns’ over Ukraine — RT News

Chinese diplomat lectures West on Russia’s ‘real security concerns’ over Ukraine
Published time: February 27, 2015 12:50

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.(Reuters / How Hwee Yong)

Ukraine turmoil

Western nations should heed Russia's legitimate security concerns over the volatile situation in Ukraine, a top Chinese diplomat has said in a rare public statement on the crisis that has damaged relations between Russia and the West.

Qu Xing, China's ambassador to Belgium, said the Ukrainian crisis came about due to the ongoing “game”– a metaphor similar to that used by US geopolitical strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, who referred to it as the “grand chessboard” – between Russia and the West, which has not abated despite, or because of, the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Arguing that outside interference by various powers inflamed the Ukrainian situation, Xing said Moscow would naturally feel threatened unless Western powers engaged in a more constructive approach.

Xing advised Western powers to “abandon the zero-sum mentality” in their efforts to deal with Moscow and the Ukraine crisis and “take the real security concerns of Russia into consideration," Reuters reported, quoting state news agency Xinhua.

China in the past has urged all involved parties to sit down and negotiate for peace.

The Chinese ambassador, whose Brussels office is in the same city as NATO’s headquarters, then offered some insight as to what motivates the United States on the international stage, and what could lead to its possible decline.

“The United States is unwilling to see its presence in any part of the world being weakened, but the fact is its resources are limited, and it will be to some extent hard work to sustain its influence in external affairs,”he was quoted as saying.

Xing said Washington's involvement in Ukraine could “become a distraction in its foreign policy.”

The Chinese diplomat’s comments represent a sharp departure from the relentless wave of hostile rhetoric coming from the West, which has gone to great lengths to blame Russia as the aggressor in the crisis.

Russia has been accused of arming eastern Ukrainian militia and dispatching soldiers and armaments as reinforcement – claims Moscow has denied on numerous occasions. There were even suggestions that Russia was somehow involved in the downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

Despite the extreme nature of the allegations, no substantive evidence has ever been presented to support such claims.

Indeed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has blamed the United States as being the primary destabilizing factor in Ukraine.

“Through every step, as the crisis has developed, our American colleagues and the EU under their influence have tried to escalate the situation,” Lavrov told participants at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month.

Lavrov pointed to the failure of the EU to engage Russia over Brussels’ efforts to have Ukraine sign an economic association agreement with the bloc; the involvement of Western political figures during the Maidan protests; the failure of the West to condemn Kiev for branding its own citizens “terrorists;” and for supporting a coup that led to the toppling of a democratically elected president.

“The US made it public it brokered the transit of power in Ukraine. But we know perfectly well what exactly happened, who discussed candidates for the future Ukrainian government on the phone, who was at Maidan, and what is going on [in Ukraine] right now,” Lavrov said.

China is a member of BRICS, the economic association that includes Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa.

***

China harangues US over anti-Russia stance
February 27, 2015

In a clear indication of its strong support for its BRICS partner, China has said western nations must shed their zero-sum mentality and accommodate Russian security concerns over the Ukraine crisis.

The Ukraine crisis is being fueled by games played by the US and the European Union, said a Chinese diplomat on Thursday.

“The United States is unwilling to see its presence in any part of the world being weakened, but the fact is its resources are limited, and it will be to some extent a hard work to sustain its influence in external affairs, ” Chinese envoy to Belgium Qu Xing told state news agencyXinhua.

“There were internal and external reasons for the Ukraine crisis. Originally, the issue stemmed from Ukraine’s internal problems, but it now was not a simple internal matter. Without external intervention from different powers, the Ukrainian problem would not develop into the serious crisis as it be,” Qu said.

China has, earlier, criticized Western sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

Qu notes that the eastern and western parts of Ukraine had differing cultural and ethnic traditions historically and that Russian-speaking regions had held long close ties with Moscow.

In what was a clear backing for Russian interests in the region, the Chinese envoy said Moscow is feeling “anxious that the West may squeeze its geographical space by extending influence in eastern European countries including Ukraine”.

Ukraine could be a warning for most countries in the world, says the Chinese ambassador.

“The major powers need to seek a win-win situation rather than zero-sum security,” Qu said.

Notwithstanding Washington’s military prowess, the US is still insecure, consistently increasing its sphere of influence, including moves to enhance the global distribution of ballistic missile defense systems.

The envoy alluded to Washington’s national security review system for foreign investors’ mergers and acquisition activities in the States. But its definition of “national security” was not clear or transparent enough, Qu alleged.

The US “is highly sensitive to its own security, while ignoring other countries’ basic security needs and concerns”, he added.

“The West should abandon the zero-sum mentality, and take the real security concerns of Russia into consideration,” said Qu.

With the EU’s geographical proximity to Ukraine and its energy dependence on Russia, the European Union is more pragmatic than the US over the Ukraine issue, he said.

The lack of US participation in the Minsk agreement, on the one hand, raised the negotiation leverage for EU partners but left room for maneuver.

“Even though a latest ceasefire agreement had been achieved, it is still possible for the Western parties to change the original decisions in the future for the excuse that the United States was not involved in the negotiations,” he said.

The United States and some leaders in Europe have, this week, threatened to impose tougher sanctions against Moscow.

Additionally, the US is considering arming the Ukrainian military.


West Should Appreciate Russia’s Security Concerns – Chinese Diplomat / Sputnik International

If a country is highly sensitive to its own security issues while ignoring others’ security needs, it will cause a lot of problems and pose a serious threat to the entire international community, according to Chinese Ambassador to Belgium Qu Xing.

'Where West Comes to Spread Democracy, Disasters Follow' - Emir Kusturica

Western powers should take Russia’s legitimate security concerns into consideration, Chinese Ambassador to Belgium Qu Xing told to state news agency Xinhua.

His comments were an unusually public show of understanding from China for the Russian position. China and Russia see eye-to-eye on many international diplomatic issues but Beijing had not been this openly critical of the West before

The diplomat said there were internal and external reasons for the Ukrainian crisis and it stemmed from country’s internal problem. However, without intervention from different powers, the Ukrainian problem would not have transformed into such a serious crisis. Without external intervention from different powers, the Ukrainian problem would not have developed into the serious crisis as it is," he said.

In addition, Qu said that the involvement of the US into the crisis has become a distraction for its foreign policy, including its "re-balanced strategy."

"The United States is unwilling to see its presence in any part of the world being weakened, but the fact is its resources are limited, and it will be to some extent a hard work to sustain its influence in external affairs," Qu stated.

Lavrov Sees No ‘Objective Reasons’ for New Cold War

"The major powers need to seek a win-win situation rather than zero-sum security," he said adding that countries need to rethink the concepts in international affairs and learn from the Ukrainian crisis.

If a country is highly sensitive to its own security issues while ignoring others’ security needs, it will cause a lot of problems and pose a serious threat to the entire international community, according to Qu.

"The West should abandon the zero-sum mentality, and take the real security concerns of Russia into consideration," he said.

Major powers should work together to solve global security problems following the principle of equality, cooperation, and mutual benefits and trust, the diplomat concluded.

 

[Beast]

With China taking side, we are really to lose Ukraine but we have milk enough of Ukraine. QC-280 gas turbine project completed, AI-222 turbofan with after burner and fadec has also transfer plus Zubr know how also transfer. Domestic 1200HP tank engine also completed.

There is nothing much Ukraine can offer for China.

 

[Carlosa]

As I had predicted recently:
China Warns US, Sides with Russia over Ukraine Conflict
It's official: China is now openly warning the United States against meddling further in Ukraine
(Zero Hedge)
China Warns US, Sides with Russia over Ukraine Conflict - Russia Insider

The winner

This article originally appeared at Zero Hedge

When it comes to the Ukraine proxy war, which started in earnest just about one year ago with the violent coup that overthrew then president Yanukovich and replaced him with a local pro-US oligarch, there has been no ambiguity who the key actors were: on the left, we had the west, personified by the US, the European Union, and NATO in general; while on the right we had Russia. In fact, if there was any confusion, it was about the role of that other "elephant in the room" - China.

To be sure, a question few asked throughout the Ukraine civil war is just whose side is China leaning toward. After all the precarious balance of power between NATO and Russia had resulted in a stalemate in which neither side has an obvious advantage (even as the Ukraine economy died, and its currency hyperinflated, waiting for a clear winner), and the explicit or implicit support of China to either camp would make all the difference in the world, not to mention the world's most formidable axis.

Today we finally got the answer, and the winner is... this guy:



Xinhua reported that late on Thursday Qu Xing, China's ambassador to Belgium, was quoted as blaming competition between Russia and the West for the Ukraine crisis, urging Western powers to "abandon the zero-sum mentality" with Russia.

Cited by Reuters, Xing said that Western powers should take into consideration Russia's legitimate security concerns over Ukraine.

Reuters' assessment of Xing speech: "an unusually frank and open display of support for Moscow's position in the crisis."

Xinhua reported that late on Thursday Qu Xing, China's ambassador to Belgium, was quoted as blaming competition between Russia and the West for the Ukraine crisis, urging Western powers to "abandon the zero-sum mentality" with Russia.

Cited by Reuters, Xing said that Western powers should take into consideration Russia's legitimate security concerns over Ukraine.

Reuters' assessment of Xing speech: "an unusually frank and open display of support for Moscow's position in the crisis."

At least it is not a warning to the US to back off or else. Yet.

Speaking in very clear and explicit language, something diplomats are not used to doing, the Chinese ambassador said the "nature and root cause" of the crisis was the "game" between Russia and Western powers, including the United States and the European Union.

He said external intervention by different powers accelerated the crisis and warned that Moscow would feel it was being treated unfairly if the West did not change its approach.

"The West should abandon the zero-sum mentality, and take the real security concerns of Russia into consideration," Qu was quoted as saying.

His comments were an unusually public show of understanding from China for the Russian position. China and Russia see eye-to-eye on many international diplomatic issues but Beijing has generally not been so willing to back Russia over Ukraine.

As noted above, China has long been very cautious not to be drawn into the struggle between Russia and the West over Ukraine's future, not wanting to alienate a key ally. And yet, something changed overnight, with this very clear language, warning some could say, that China will no longer tolerate Pax Americana, and even the mere assumption of a unipolar western world, let alone the reality.

Qu's comments take place just as talks between the United States and its European allies over harsher sanctions against Moscow.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western powers of trying to dominate and impose their ideology on the rest of world. The United States and European delegations slammed Moscow for supporting rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Qu said Washington's involvement in Ukraine could "become a distraction in its foreign policy".

And then, Qu's slap in the face of Obama: "The United States is unwilling to see its presence in any part of the world being weakened, but the fact is its resources are limited, and it will be to some extent hard work to sustain its influence in external affairs."

Especially if and when China decides to send a few peacekeepers of its own into Ukraine. You know - just to make sure US influence in external affairs isn't "sustained" too much.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

With China taking side, we are really to lose Ukraine but we have milk enough of Ukraine. QC-280 gas turbine project completed, AI-222 turbofan with after burner and fadec has also transfer plus Zubr know how also transfer. Domestic 1200HP tank engine also completed.

There is nothing much Ukraine can offer for China.

China did not take side, Ukraine is still China best friend. A friendly advise doesn't mean at Ukraine expense, We did not provide Russia anything to harm Ukraine beside tell Western and especially US to back off of making thing worst in this region. I think both Russia and Ukraine will appreciate that China use water intead of adding oil to the fire.

 

[Nan Yang]

In any case, with Crimea, Russia now dominate the black sea effectively stopping NATO eastward expansion.

 

[Place Of Space]

Obviously, China is sides with Ukraine people and Russia government.