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

[Daniel808]

why only a regiment? do you think the russians will be impressed? the germans sent 3.5 millions for a visit some time ago. try harder. don´t forget to tag me if the russians stage any drills with you in the SC sea.

@Barmaley

They are (China and Russia) already Cooperate between each other Navies in East China Sea last month (8-9 June 2016)

Japan must be Pissed so much. Lol


Nice Cooperation between Chinese Navy - Russian Navy together in Diayou Island Waters - East China Sea, 8-9 June 2016.


So, Cooperation between China and Russia in South China Sea to protect SCS from Pirates is imminent !
Just Patience, dude

Together, We secure SCS from Pirates attack

 

[Beidou2020]

I will not consider China-Russia partnership as a mature one until/unless the two sides declare that attack on one of the partners will be considered an attack the other and responded accordingly.

Still awaiting that ultimate strategic partnership.

This is the ultimate partnership.

But China is stuck with NFU nuclear policy. Russia don't have NFU policy.

 

[ahojunk]

Why didn't you tag Putin? He visited China on a yearly basis, maybe He can explain to you why coming to China so frequently.

.


Gotta give you a [Like]. You made me laugh so hard!

 

[TaiShang]

If we make a formal declaration now, which will offically announce the new global cold war begins. It is a bit rush but I believe it will arrive soon. Couldn't help to wait that great moment come.

The following is the ads appearing on Russian street, which remind us that Russia is ready.

View attachment 315511

Well said, and I agree. No need to further rally the West into an all-around confrontation.

A strong geopolitical but non-binding statement would be, especially right before/after the ITLOS ruling, a joint exercise in SCS.

@vostok , @senheiser

 

[TaiShang]

Commentary

Russia’s “China Dreams” are Less of a Fantasy Than You Think
Alexander Gabuev
June 28, 2016





In the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing for a summit with Xi Jinping, the reaction in the Western media has been predictably [URL='http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-23/putin-s-trade-pivot-to-china-isn-t-all-smooth-as-silk-for-russia']skeptical. Snickering about the Russia-China axis has been a fixture in Washington and most European capitals for far too long. Western media and policymakers commonly react to the Kremlin’s “pivot to China” in the wake of the Ukraine crisis with derision.

The dominant view in these circles is that there is much more dividing China and Russia than uniting them. Moscow is afraid of its giant neighbor, which increasingly holds the dominant position in the relationship, according to the standard line of argument. With a gross domestic product that dwarfs that of Russia and an army growing progressively more capable and assertive, China seems to present a threat with which the Kremlin is ill-equipped to deal. Further, China depends far more on the West for markets and technology, and its trade with the European Union and the United States is nearly ten times larger than trade with neighboring Russia. In short, the argument goes, the partnership between Moscow and Beijing is a shallow one, so the West shouldn’t fret too much about it.

For understandable reasons, a sharp drop in bilateral trade in 2015 and the distinct lack of progress on high-profile investment and energy deals are cited as evidence that Russia’s “China dreams” were totally unrealistic from the outset. However, the situation is much more complex than this analytically complacent narrative suggests. Poking holes in Russian and Chinese propaganda may be worthwhile, but not if it lulls outside observers into missing the fact that Moscow is slowly but surely drifting into Beijing’s firm embrace.

The Kremlin’s “pivot to China” is happening under challenging external conditions, a fact that should be taken into account when measuring its progress. Russian-Chinese trade fell by nearly 30 percent in 2015 largely due to the collapse in oil prices. But the actual volume of Russian oil exports to China increased by the same amount, according to Chinese customs data. For the first time in history, Moscow has become the largest or second-largest crude supplier to Beijing, which puts them basically on par with Saudi Arabia. Now that Russia and China are expanding the pipelines that connect their energy networks, this trend is likely to continue.

Chinese financial institutions have not replaced the West as a source of capital for Russia, and Chinese commercial banks have been reluctant to ignore U.S./EU sanctions. However, the lending reticence of Chinese commercial banks has been compensated by the willingness of Beijing’s so-called political banks and export-import banks to lend to Russian companies, even those under sanctions. With $18 billion in loans, China was Russia’s largest source of foreign capital last year if one discounts Russian money parked offshore in Cyprus.

Moscow and Beijing have also stepped up efforts to develop a parallel financial infrastructure that will bypass the United States and thus be immune to international sanctions. Fearful of being cut off from SWIFT and other U.S.-led payment systems like Visa and MasterCard, the Russians are working on creating alternatives. China’s approach to doing business with Iran prior to the nuclear deal provided a useful template in this regard. But this time, Beijing has a lot more to play with since the Russian leadership is hellbent on breaking free from their near-total dependence on the U.S.-dominated global financial system.

Another key element of change is Russia’s decision to reassess its policy on arms sales to China. Faded are Moscow’s old fears that Russian arms could be reverse-engineered and sold in third-party markets, or, worse, might one day be used against Russia in a border conflict. Just consider recent sales of highly advanced systems like the S-400 surface-to-air missile system and Su-35 fighter jets. These deals are likely to alter the strategic balance vis-a-vis Taiwan, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea. If the Chinese People’s Liberation Army ultimately decides to deploy the S-400 across the Taiwan Strait, it would control the skies over the island, making its defense far more challenging and costly.

An asymmetrical Russian-Chinese interdependence is emerging. China is reaping the lion’s share of the benefits and Russia acting like the needier, more pliable partner. However, the partnership is not driven by mutual trust or by a desire to undermine the West. It is true that both Moscow and Beijing are concerned about Washington’s plans, such as the deployment of American THAAD anti-ballistic missile systems in South Korea, as well as presumed American democracy promotion campaigns, particularly on the Internet. Both topics are reflected in two statements Putin and Xi signed after the summit. But the growing partnership is spurred not only by growing anti-Americanism, but more importantly by Russia’s quest for external economic support to keep the regime afloat in the wake of Western sanctions. Chinese leaders are carefully camouflaging the growing lopsidedness of the relationship through skillful shows of respect. Given the Kremlin’s lack of viable alternatives to China’s embrace, Beijing is now poised to acquire the kind of assets it needs to energize its quest for global influence. The West needs to take this fact into account as it seeks to dissuade Asian allies like Japan from developing their own ties with Moscow.


Alexander Gabuev is a senior associate and the chair of the Russia in the Asia-Pacific program at the Carnegie Moscow Center. Prior to joining Carnegie, Gabuev was a member of the editorial board of Kommersant publishing house and served as deputy editor in chief of Kommersant-Vlast, one of Russia’s most influential newsweeklies.[/URL]

 

[Jlaw]

Yes, I liked the statement, but, a formal declaration would be a more powerful geopolitical statement which would make the West encroaching on both China and Russia think twice.

It is very interesting observation about Turkey. Turkey is not to be trusted even on a solid pragmatist basis; essentially, they are on the Western camp no matter what happens, that is just in the gene of right wing governments. Hopefully, Russia will be able to utilize this to bring the Syrian situation to an end.

I wouldn't rush the military alliance declaration.

 

[beijingwalker]

As US Controlled NATO Meets: U.S. War on Russia and China Will Mean Ruin for the Whole of Europe and Asia
by JOHN V. WALSH

What we shouldn’t do now is inflame the situation further through sabre-rattling and warmongering. ..

Whoever believes that a symbolic tank parade on the alliance’s eastern border will bring security is mistaken. ..

We are well-advised to not create pretexts to renew an old confrontation. ..

(It would be) fatal to search only for military solutions and a policy of deterrence.

— German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier,commenting on NATO’s recent military exercises in Poland and the Baltics.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s cry of distress is that of a man watching a tidal wave of destruction gathering force, similar to ones that have engulfed his country twice in the 20th Century. His dread is not to be dismissed since it comes from a man who is in a position to know what the U.S. is up to. His words reflect the fears of ever more people across all of Eurasia from France in the West to Japan in the East.

Under the euphemism of “containment,” the U.S. is relentlessly advancing its new Cold War on Russia and China. Its instrument in the West is NATO and in the East, Japan and whatever other worthies can be sharked up.

It is a Cold War that grows increasingly hotter, with proxy wars now raging in Eastern Ukraine and Syria and with confrontations in the South China Sea. There is an ever growing likelihood that these points of tension will flare up into an all out military conflict.

In the West this conflict will begin in Eastern Europe and Russia, but it will not stop there. All the European NATO countries would be on the front lines. In the East the conflict will take place in the Western Pacific in the region of China’s coast and in the peninsulas and island countries in the region, including Japan, the Philippines and Indochina.

In each case the US will be an ocean away, “leading from behind,” as Barack Obama would put it, or engaged in “offshore balancing” as some foreign policy “experts” might term it.

No matter the “victors,” all of Eurasia, from France in the West to Japan in the East would be devastated. No matter the outcome, the US could escape unscathed and “win” in this sense. And all Eurasian nations would lose. It would be World War II redux.

One can get a sense of what this means in the case of economic conflict by looking at the minimal economic warfare now being waged on Russia in the form of sanctions. Those sanctions are hurting both Russia and the rest of Europe. The US is untouched.

The same is also true for military conflict. Want to know what it would look like? Look at Eastern Ukraine. All of Eurasia could come to resemble that sorry nation in the event of a military conflict pitting the US and its allies against Russia and China. Eurasia, be forewarned!

The goal of the US foreign policy elite would clearly be for Russia and China to “lose,” but even if they “won,” they would be brought low, leaving the US as the world’s greatest economic and military power as it was in 1945.

Europe is beginning to awaken to this. We have Steinmeier’s plea above. But it is not only Germany that is worried. The French Senate wants an end to the sanctions imposed on Russia. Business people in many Western European countries, most notably in Germany and Italy, European farmers who export to Russia and tourist entrepreneurs like those in Turkey and Bulgaria also want an end to sanctions and military exercises. Parties of the Right want an end to domination by NATO and Brussels, both controlled by the US. The Brexit is just one rumbling of such discontent.

All these nations are growing increasingly aware of the fate that awaits them if overt conflict erupts with Russia. The people of Germany want none of it. Likewise the people of Japan are stirring against the US effort to goad Japan into fighting China. All remember the devastation of WWII.

Let’s recall the casualty figures, i.e., deaths, among the principal combatants of WWII:

Soviet Union- 27,000,000 (14% of the population);

China- 17,000,000 (3.5%);

Germany- 7,000,000 (8.5%);

Japan- 2,800,000 (4%).

By comparison, for the US, safely far offshore, the number was 419,000 (0.32%)!

And for a few other countries which “got in the way” of the major adversaries:

Yugoslavia- 1,500,000 (9%)

Poland- 6,000,000 (17%)

French Indochina- 1,600,000 (6.11%)

Philippines- 527,000 (3.29%)

One wonders what the leaders of Poland or the Philippines or some elements in Vietnam are thinking when they take a belligerent attitude to Russia or China in order to please the US.

The problem with this US strategy is that it could easily spill over into a nuclear conflict as nearly happened in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Then the US too would be reduced to radioactive rubble. The bet of the Western policy elite must be that Russia and China would not respond to a conventional war with a nuclear response.

However Vladimir Putin has made it clear that in any war with the West, the US will feel the impact at once. The neocons and the rest of the US foreign policy elite must be betting that Putin can do nothing, because he would not use nuclear weapons. So the destruction will be confined to Europe and Asia.

But that assumption is a dangerous one. Nuclear weapons might not be used. Russia and China might respond with a conventional weapons attack on US cities. In WWII Germany was able to wreak considerable devastation using conventional bombs on England delivered by airplanes and V2 rockets. Similarly the US was able to do enormous damage to Germany and to Japan with conventional weapons, especially fire bombing as in Tokyo and Dresden. Today technology has advanced greatly, and US cities have nuclear power plants nearby.

What is the likely outcome of a conventional war waged against US cities? Do we wish to find out? And once it begins where is the firewall against an all-out nuclear exchange? Where are the neocons and the rest of the US foreign policy elite taking us? Certainly the damage will begin with Eurasia, but Americans would do well to worry that great swarms of chickens might come home to roost in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. This is not the 20th Century.

For some the scenarios above might seem unduly alarmist. They might doubt that the US elite would be capable of consciously unleashing such a vast bloodletting. For those, it is useful to recall the words of President Harry S. Truman, who said in 1941, when he was still a Senator and before the US had entered WWII:

“If we see that Germany is winning the war, we ought to help Russia; and if that Russia is winning, we ought to help Germany, and in that way let them kill as many as possible. . . .”

Is that not what happened?

People of Eurasia, beware.

A version of this article originally appeared on RT here.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07...l-mean-ruin-for-the-whole-of-europe-and-asia/

 

[beijingwalker]

One wonders what the leaders of Poland or the Philippines or some elements in Vietnam are thinking when they take a belligerent attitude to Russia or China in order to please the US.

It's a Russian RT report. it's clearly shown that Russia is not happy with those countries.

 

[sword1947]

US and Nato just wanna do that, so China and Russia will play with them

 

[TaiShang]

A nice infographics.

 

[ahojunk]

Learning another language exposes one to another culture.

--------
Multilingual education gains rising popularity in the Middle Kingdom due to the One Belt, One Road initiative
By Chen Ximeng | Source:Global Times | Published: 2016-7-10 5:03:03

A teacher teaching a Spanish class in the Spanish immersion program at Gucheng High School in Shijingshan district. Photo: Li Hao/GT​

Wang Xinyue, an 18-year-old graduate from Gucheng High School in Shijingshan district, had a different experience than most high school graduates who took gaokao (national college entrance examinations) last month. Instead of English, he sat for a Spanish exam.

Wang studied Spanish language for three years in the Spanish immersion classes at his school. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education for foreign language exams in gaokao, students can choose from six languages - English, Japanese, German, French, Russian and Spanish.

"We have one advantage compared to English test-takers. Some universities will put down the score threshold for students like me through independent recruitment."

After some research, Wang targeted four untraditional foreign languages from Xi'an International Studies University in Shaanxi Province over English - French, Arabic, Russian and Italian.

In recent years, an increasing number of students are majoring in untraditional foreign languages, and starting learning at a younger age.

Wu Wei, the director of the admission division of Beijing International Studies University (BISU), told Metropolitan that this year, the biggest change on enrollment is opening four new untraditional foreign language programs of study - Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Latvian - with 80 more spots for admission in Beijing.

As the international communication between China and other countries is broadened and becoming more in-depth, more Chinese companies expand overseas, and under the influence of the One Belt, One Road initiative, the demand for talented people that have mastered untraditional foreign languages has grown extensively.

Rising popularity

The enrollment for untraditional foreign languages began on July 7 in Beijing.

On that evening, the first admission letter from Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) was sent to Zhou Run, a graduate from Beijing No.161 High School. Zhou, scored 646, higher than all the applicants of BLCU, and 63 points higher than the first-tier cutoff line in Beijing. He was admitted into a French major, the Beijing Daily reported on July 7.

Zhou told the Beijing Daily that his dream is to be a French interpreter.

"French is widely used now, so I hope to use French to communicate with more people," Zhou said in the report.

Wu, who is now very busy with admission work, said that compared with other majors, the admission scores for untraditional foreign language are very high.

"Statistics from this year show the scores of applicants are higher than previous years. There are a large number of candidates applying for the four newly-launched languages," said Wu.

Wu said in recent years, more students have a great passion for learning untraditional foreign languages, therefore the competition becomes very fierce. One of the reasons he believes is that most young people born after 1995 are influenced by a more diverse culture.

"More importantly, compared with English which is widely taught in China, there are not many schools teaching untraditoinal foreign languages, especially for less-known languages such as Lao, Polish and Serbian. Yet the demand is great and the job prospects are very good, increasing its popularity."

Wu said the hot majors are French, Spanish and German; among which French was the hottest with an application and enrollment ratio of 32:1 last year.

He further explained that French and Spanish have always been popular, mainly because many countries use the two languages, and graduates have more career choices. As Chinese resource-based companies, such as oil companies, expand their businesses in South America, the graduates in Spanish language courses are greatly coveted. There are also "cold" languages becoming popular as the connections between China and these countries become closer.

For example, this year's newly-launched languages are to cater to the needs for Central and Eastern European languages, he added.

More Chinese students learn non-traditional foreign languages for better job prospects, a higher possibility of being enrolled in a university in a non-traditional foreign language country and learning about new cultures. Photo: IC​

Lowering ages, high starting point

Besides university students, younger students are taking on early untraditional foreign language studies.

Wang was one of the 20 members in the Spanish immersion class in Gucheng High School. All the members in his class were selected among junior high school students in Beijing.

Wang said in their class, Spanish is the first foreign language taught, with English being the second. Every week, they have nine Spanish classes. They also have a lot of Spanish-related extracurricular activities.

Wang thinks by starting early in high school, he has a wider choice of universities to become more multilingual. While waiting on the results of Chinese universities, he is also applying for Spanish universities.

Like Gucheng, several other schools in Beijing also have launched early immersion or special classes for Japanese, French and Korean languages, aimed at high school students. Beijing No.21 Middle School, as one of the earliest schools to launch classes of this kind in Beijing, has offered French since 2004 and has seen over 400 graduates, according to the Modern Education News in 2015.

Some language training organizations also open up untraditional foreign language classes to cater to growing needs of younger students.

According to the statistics of Hongyu School, a language training organization in Beijing, students taking untraditional foreign language classes are aged from five to 10, the Beijing-based newspaper The Mirror reported in 2013.

"For the past two years, middle and primary school students have a growing passion for learning untraditional foreign languages like Italian, German, French and Spanish," said Principal Qu Hongtao, quoted by The Mirror.

An anonymous parent told the paper that mastering English is not that advantageous in the job market. If children can lay down a strong base of a second language at a young age, they will have an edge in spoken ability and culture for landing a job both in China and abroad.

Some parents did so to give their children an advantage in studying overseas. Since 2012, going to school in countries with untraditional foreign languages is becoming more popular.

According to the principal of another training school, who was quoted by the report, students going overseas to study in an untraditional foreign language country have a great edge in language, compared with those going to English-speaking countries. If one is proficient in an untraditional foreign language, he or she will be more likely to be enrolled in a top university in that country.

Last year, to cater to the growing need of learning an untraditional foreign language at a younger age, BISU piloted a seven-year, run-through cultivation program for four languages - Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Latvian. The four classes were filled with 80 students selected from junior high schools in Beijing. The program received around 1,280 applications.

"We call them 'little' university students. During the seven years, the first two years will be spent in BISU to learn English, general-knowledge courses, and high school basic courses; one year in a cooperative university in the target country, one year back to BISU, and the last three years again in the target country," said Wu.

He said that in this way, students can put down the burden of preparing for gaokao.

After this year's pilot, they decided to add another four: Romanian, Lithuanian, Estonian and Serbian to cater to the growing needs for people trained in Central and Eastern European languages.

The driving force of One Belt, One Road initiative

With the execution of One Belt, One Road initiative, there is a growing demand for untraditional foreign language experts.

Wu said that one of the major reasons for launching eight Central and Eastern European languages is that they are major countries in One Belt, One Road initiative.

"The relation between China and these countries are continuously strengthened with increasing communication, especially in economic cooperation, which will greatly increase the need for talented language persons."

He recalled that the officials from some embassies of these countries in China have expressed to him how badly they want talented language persons. The ambassador from the Embassy of Poland even told him if they are lack in teaching resources, they can help find Polish professors to support the program.

Jason Wang, a 28-year-old graduate of Thai language at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) in 2011, now works as the product manager of a well-known Internet company in Beijing. He thinks that learning Thai gives good prospects for career, especially since China has launched the One Belt, One Road initiative. Thailand is one of the countries that are involved in this initiative, which will further improve the need for Thai talented persons.

"Besides, China's Internet industry has developed at a high pace, so many put their eyes on an overseas market, which creates a great need for people like me," said Jason Wang.

Lan Jianhua, vice director of the employment division of BFSU, said statistics show that the need for untraditional foreign language is very high in target countries under the One Belt, One Road Initiative. For example, this year, they could clearly feel the need for Serbian language increasing.

According to a China Youth Daily report in 2015, the number of official languages covering the countries in the initiative is over 40. However, there are only 20 languages for admissions in universities in China between 2010 and 2013. Besides, the number of students able to be admitted in untraditional foreign language programs belonging to countries involved in the One Belt, One Road initiative is limited, said the report.

"To cater to the growing needs, the school is considering opening up new languages, adding more admissions for the languages and cutting down on others," said Lan. "Our school plans to build a national-level untraditional foreign language development strategic base to cultivate more multi-talent language graduates."

 

[ahojunk]

Wow! They are also preventing the trafficking of endangered wildlife. Very good move.

-------
Officials receive CITES enforcement training relevant to “One belt, One Road Initiative”
Monday, July 11, 2016 at 12:31

Xiao Yu, a Programme Officer with TRAFFIC, presented recent market monitoring results © TRAFFIC

Tianshui, Gansu, China, July 2016—Around 50 enforcement officials, including representatives from the Forest Police, Customs, State Administration of Industry and Commerce and Forestry Department in Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces attended a training event on the Convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora (CITES) last month.

The event was organized by the Shanxi Branch of China’s CITES Management Authority (CITES MA) in Gansu province in co-operation with TRAFFIC and focused on the influence of China on wildlife trade and combating wildlife crimes.

Ningxia, Qinghai and Gansu all lie along the new “Silk Road Economic Belt”, while Yunnan is an important hub in the new “Maritime Silk Road”. Together they form the “One Belt, One Road initiative”, which aims to boost connectivity and co-operation between China and the rest of Eurasia.

The economic development will bring more legal wildlife trade, with the likelihood of an increase in wildlife smuggling and illegal trade too, presenting new enforcement challenges.

Mr Zhang Shanning, Director of Enforcement and Training with China’s CITES MA spoke about some of the latest developments with international trade in threatened species and the high-level political attention the issue was currently receiving in the country.

Xiao Yu, a Programme Officer with TRAFFIC presented recent market monitoring findings, after which Ms Jia Yongyi, Director of the Shanxi Branch of China’s CITES MA commented:

“All enforcement departments need to take TRAFFIC’s market survey results seriously: their reliable information can help the government with implementation of CITES regulations in China.”

”The One Belt, One Road initiative is a crucial part of the National Strategy, which will promote international trade in many fields,” said Zhou Fei, Head of TRAFFIC’s China office.

“TRAFFIC, as an international organization, needs to investigate and study the influence of the trade in wildlife as this Strategy unfolds, to ensure there is sustainable development and avoid any negative impacts on our natural resources.”

Shanxi Institute of Zoology is currently carrying out research into the impacts of the One Belt, One Road initiative, the results of which will be released at the end of 2016.

WWF UK is thanked for their generous support for TRAFFIC’s work facilitating China’s enforcement departments in implementation of CITES regulations.

 

[onebyone]

Tim Daiss ,

CONTRIBUTOR

Geopolitical analyst and journalist based in Southeast Asia.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.


TWEET THIS

• Russia and China are discussing joint cooperation in outer-space exploration, including missions to the Moon and even Mars

JIUQUAN, CHINA – SEPTEMBER 29: A Long March 2F rocket carrying the country’s first space laboratory module Tiangong-1 lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on September 29, 2011 in Jiuquan, Gansu province of China. The unmanned Tiangong-1 stayed in orbit for two years and docked with China’s Shenzhou-8, -9 and -10 spacecraft with the eventual goal of establishing a manned Chinese space station around 2020. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Russia and China are discussing joint cooperation in outer-space exploration, including missions to the Moon and even Mars , according to a statement by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on Wednesday.

“Yesterday, we (Rogozin and Vice-Premier of China’s State Council Wang Yang) worked for three and a half hours, discussing cooperation in the nuclear sphere and cooperation in the issues of interaction between our space agencies where there are such large projects as the deliveries of rocket engines, and cooperation in navigation systems,” the Russian vice-premier said.

He made his remarks during a talk with the heads of Russian regions and Chinese provinces and the managers of companies from both countries. The expo is an annual industrial exhibition held since 2014 within the framework of the Harbin Trade Fair.


“We’re developing an understanding for the rocket and space industry for possible interaction in such profound and technologically complex projects as the future exploration of the Moon, Mars and piloted cosmonautics,” he said.

Rogozin added that both countries have the potential to implement such impressive projects as trust exists both at the political level and at the level of specialists solving these issues.

Rogozin’s statement’s come less than a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing. During that meeting the two sides inked a pact setting out the legal framework for protecting their rights to sensitive space technologies in joint projects like launch vehicles and rocket engines.
China’s lunar program needs Russia

Chinese astronauts (front L-R) Wang Yaping, mission commander Nie Haisheng and Zhang Xiaoguang gesture as they prepare to board the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft in Jiuquan, northwest China’s Gansu on June 11, 2013. China launch its longest-ever manned space mission on June 11, with its second woman astronaut among the crew, as it steps up its ambitious space programme, a symbol of the country’s growing power. (Photo AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

Russia’s Ambassador to China, Andrey Denisov, said the two sides have been discussing the prospects of cooperation with space stations and making long-distance space flights. He added that “this cooperation is of purely peaceful, civilian nature and will finally benefit the entire humankind rather than only the participating states.”

China, for its part, has already ramped-up its pace program, conducting 19 successful space flights last year, with 20 planned for 2016. It also plans to launch to launch its Tiangong 2 space laboratory and a manned spacecraft Shenzhou 11, among other military and commercial orbital missions.


Earlier this month, according to state-run Xinhua news agency, China shipped the Tiangong 2 to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert, where it will be launched into space in mid-September. The module was transported by rail from Beijing.

The Tiangong 1 was launched in 2011 and hosted two crews of taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) in 2012 and 2013. China releases less information about its space activities than other nations, while plans for Tiangong 1 remain unclear.
Rogozin said on July 6 that China might buy rocket engines for its space program from Russia, adding that China was interested “in a number of services and products, which will be very important for the development of the Chinese space program, in particular, for its lunar program.” He said that China’s lunar program is practically impossible without “certain supplies of equipment from Russia.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timdais...uss-mission-to-moon-even-mars/2/#3908754256bc

 

[maximuswarrior]

About time. China and Russia need to start cooperating as a counterweight. The world will benefit from their cooperation.

 

[Jlaw]

About time. China and Russia need to start cooperating as a counterweight. The world will benefit from their cooperation.

The problem is that Russians want cooperation now but China is on the verge of able to do these on their own. The Russians offer is 10 years too late.