China’s Military Power
Less Butter and Fewer Friends, But More Guns
As China’s economy slows down ahead of expectations and it loses its luster abroad, it’s hard power seems set to acquire a bigger profile.
Geopolitics
China
Geopolitics
Синореализм 101
Wei Gensheng: Шанхай, Китай. У меня появилась в среде русских националистов некая репутация “синофила”. На самом деле, мне как-то безразлично, считаете ли вы, что китайцы – наследники древней, пятитысячелетний культуры, чья страна заслуживает снова стать “Среднем Королевством” всего мира, либо что они – аутистичные, богоборствующие роботы, которые убивают своих девочек в матке и едят собак. Но если меня
Politics
Russian Liberals and China
Reprinted from Facebook (2018/02/15): Russian liberals (Vladimir Milov this time) continue claiming the China gas deal is disastrous for Russia. His argument this time? That Japan pays $200/mcm more for gas than what China gave Russia. http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/milov/1330024-echo/ He is either ignorant of or ignoring the fact that Japan imports gas as LNG, because it’s an island LOL.
History
A Very Brief History of China-Russia Relations
The response of much western commentary to the Russia China agreements has been scepticism that they can ever burgeon into an outright partnership because of the supposedly long history of mutual suspicion and hostility between the two countries. The Economist for example refers to the two countries as “frenemies”. To see whether these claims are
Politics
Russian Federation Sitrep 2014.03.13
RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 13 March 2014 Propaganda. Watch for these news items in your local media outlet to indicate when it stops re-typing and starts reporting. Who is what in the new govt in Kiev; the sniper story; General Dempsey has no evidence the soldiers in Crimea are Russians; what the treaty allows Russia to
Geopolitics
Translation: Patriarch Kirill in China
As the Russian Patriarch embarks on a five-day visit to China, Kommersant’s Pavel Korobov takes a look at the history, current reality, and future prospects of Orthodoxy in China. The ROC Acquires Chinese Literacy Patriarch Kirill arrived in China on a five-day official visit. The leadership of the PRC has already called the First Hierarch’s visit
Society
Book Review: Xin Liu – The Otherness Of Self
“The Otherness of Self” by Xin Liu, published in 2002. Rating: 1/5. I don’t want to sound overly demanding, but really, unless a writer is the next Kant or Heidegger, he owes it to his readers to make his prose at least minimally engaging. With this book on too many occasions I was under the
History
Book Review: Benjamin Schwartz – In Search Of Wealth And Power
In Search of Wealth and Power by Benjamin Schwartz, published in 1964. Rating: 4/5. In Search of Wealth and Power is a very dense but richly rewarding tome by Benjamin Schwartz, a noted China scholar. He focuses on the life of the translator Yan Fu to illustrate the culture clashes that arose when traditional Chinese civilization came into
Economy
The West Made Its Bed, Now Russia Will Lie In China’s
The latest US-Russia.org Experts Panel discussion was about Russia’s burgeoning partnership with China. I especially recommend Mercouris’ contribution which – although unfortunately titled by VoR’s editorial staff)) – is otherwise quite brilliant. My own effort follows below: First of all, let me preface that I’m one of the biggest China bulls around. Its economy in real
History
Book Review: Arthur H. Smith – Chinese Characteristics
Chinese Characteristics by Arthur Henderson Smith, published in 1894. It is available free here. Rating: 5/5. In rich and evocative prose reminiscent of De Tocqueville’s writings on America, Arthur H. Smith lays out what he sees as the core features of the Chinese character and his values. The tone is bold and fearless, making sweeping generalizations and brusque judgments that
Demographics
The Guardian On China And Russia
Keeping up with the Guardian’s stream of textual diarrhea in its Russia coverage is a quixotic task, and one that I do not really have the stamina for (although Alex Mercouris does this remarkably effectively). Still, when it comes to certain issues I’m particularly interested in, such as demography, or China-Russians relations as in this
HBD
The Evolution Of Chinese IQ
In the discussion at the previous post, in which I took exception to Ron Unz’s theory of the East Asian Exception, he alerted me to so additional work on the matter he’d done as a Harvard freshman on Chinese IQ. You can read his summary of Social Darwinism and Rural China as well as Steve Sailer’s commentary on
HBD
Disagree With Ron Unz’s Conclusions On Chinese IQ
He writes: These scores are indeed truly remarkable, and completely confirm the apparent pattern of Lynn’s IQ samples, in which desperately poor East Asians tend to score at or above the levels of the most successful and well-educated Western populations… But since the total population is at least well into the hundreds of millions, heavily rural
HBD
Analysis Of China’s PISA 2009 Results
As human capital is so important for prosperity, it behoves us to know China’s in detail to assess whether it will continue converging on developed countries. Until recently the best data we had were disparate IQ tests (on the basis of which Richard Lynn’s latest estimate is an IQ of 105.8 in his 2012 book
Society
Chinese Netizens Praise Russian Democracy, Accountability
Typically when Westerners write about Chinese and Russians they stress the negative aspects of the relationship. Russians are invariably racist towards the Chinese and fear them in xenophobic reaction to their (non-existent) swamping of Siberia. The Chinese for their part laugh at the alcoholic, non-productive Russkies. And quite likely they will soon invade and take