Eatup's Guide to China & The Far East

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/ END OF images captured from a DJI drone

 

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Test to prove the Chinese have fully grasped high-speed railways technology: Two bullet trains sliding past each other at 420km/hr each on parallel tracks (that's a dizzying 840km/hr relative speed)!

The gap between the two trains was only 1.6 meters when they met and the passengers, mostly technicians and journalists, felt only the slightest of jolts during the encounter. At a relative speed to one another of 840 km per hour, these trains are effectively travelling at the same speed as a cruising airliner.

 

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China's CRH high-speed railways:

 

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High-speed railways station in China:

 

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2011/06/02
Comparative Rail Safety


Using Wikipedia’s list of rail crashes and its UIC-sourced list of rail passenger-km by country, one can compare different countries’ mainline passenger rail accident fatality rates. The US turns out to be the least safe among the regions I’ve checked, even worse than India; much-maligned China comes out first.

I constructed the list below by averaging accident rates going back to 1991, to smooth out fluctuations coming from low-frequency, high-impact disasters. Crashes involving only freight trains are ignored, and pedestrians and car and bus passengers struck by passenger trains are included. Bombings are excluded, but sabotage incidents leading to accidents are included.

China: 876.22 billion passenger-km/year, 317 deaths over 20 years. This is one death per 55.3 billion passenger-km.

Japan: the UIC claims 253.55 billion passenger-km/year, which only includes JR companies. Figures including private railroads and excluding subways range from 360 to 395.9 billion passenger-km; I believe the higher number since it is slightly less dated. Over 20 years there have been 154 deaths, so this is one death per 51.4 billion passenger-km. Including subways would put Japan on a par with China.

EU-27: 386.24 billion passenger-km/year (presumably mainline only), 603 mainline deaths over 20 years. This does not include 155 deaths from a fire on a funicular. This is one death per 12.8 billion passenger-km, or 1 per 10.2 billion if the funicular fire is included. This varies a lot by country: the safest European countries, such as France and the Netherlands, are on a par with China and Japan, but the EU average is pulled down by Germany (due to Eschede) and the periphery.

South Korea: 31.3 billion passenger-km/year, 93 deaths over 20 years. This is one death per 6.7 billion passenger-km. Here the mainline-only rule is a problem because a) the Seoul subway is even more integrated with commuter rail than the Tokyo subway, and b) a subway fire in Daegu killed 198 people.

India: 838.03 billion passenger-km/year, 2,556 deaths over 20 years. This is one death per 6.6 billion passenger-km.

US: 27.26 billion passenger-km/year (both Amtrak and commuter rail), 159 deaths over 20 years. Note the rate is more than twice that of China per capita, let alone per rail passenger. This is one death per 3.4 billion passenger-km.

For comparison, the US road network has 33,000 accident deaths and 7.35 trillion passenger-km per year, which is one death per 220 million passenger-km.

On a closing note, China not only has the safest passenger trains, but also by far the busiest tracks. Freight density beats that of the US and Russia and passenger density beats that of any European country.

Recent train crash in Italy:

 

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Evidences pointing to US lagging behind China in the next decade:

http://www.defenseworld.net/news/16...n_Drone_Intruded_In_Its_Airspace#.V45fzDOlhEg

Israeli Patriot Missiles Miss Syrian Drone Intruded In Its Airspace

Israeli Defense Forces fired two Patriot missiles at a Syrian drone that crossed into its airspace but missed to hit the target.

The missiles missed the drone which "returned to Syria" after the incident in the central Golan Heights, where the demarcation line between the two countries is located, the military was quoted as saying by AFP.

Patriot missiles come from the US, do they not? And:

http://www.space.com/26944-us-military-hypersonic-weapon-test-explodes.html

US Military Blows Up Hypersonic Weapon After Failed Test Launch

The U.S. Army launched a prototype hypersonic weapon test from Alaska on Monday (Aug. 25), only to destroy the superfast vehicle seconds later when something went wrong.

The Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, as it is called, blasted off from Alaska's Kodiak Launch Complex just after 4 a.m. EDT (0800 GMT) on Monday, but was commanded to explode as a safety measure when an anomaly was detected in the test flight.

"The flight was terminated in the first four seconds," Pentagon spokeswoman Maureen Schumann told Space.com in an email. The weapon launched on a three-stage STARS solid rocket booster, she added.

Meanwhile:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WU-14

WU-14

The DF-ZF (previously designated as the WU-14) is a hypersonic missile delivery vehicle that has been flight-tested by the Chinese seven times, on : 9 January, 7 August and 2 December 2014; 7 June and 27 November 2015[1] and April 2016.[2]

The Chinese Defense Ministry confirmed its January 2014 test and said the test was "scientific" in nature, although it was widely viewed as part of a broader Chinese military build-up.[3] The August 2014 test was described as a failure by U.S. officials; the other tests were apparently successful.

Hmm, let's see... China has successfully tested their Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV, aka the carrier-killer) 6/7 times. Meanwhile USA blows up their test HGV. I guess that puts America's HGV program far far behind China's and even Russia's. USA has never won a war in Asia after WWII. Guess which side has the fear factor tipped in their favor in a war/confrontation?

 

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What may be put in the South China Sea Spratly Islands next... Chinese tech:

 

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Real-time USN warships coordinates in the Western Pacific:

LOL. You gotta be kiddin' me... 3 USN warships up against this in the South China Sea?

 

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USA's cream-of-the-crop "weapon", the F-22 Raptor... is afraid of a little rainwater:

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/f-22-raptor-capabilities-and-controversies-019069/

Washingtion Post (July 7/09) – Premier U.S. Fighter Jet [F-22 Raptor] Has Major Shortcomings external link. It alleges failure to meet key performance parameters, spiraling maintenance and operations costs, and failures of the plane’s stealth coatings in conditions like rain.

The Washington Post isn't a good source to get info on the capabilities of the F-22.

But rain can affect stealth capabilities. Generally, stealth fighters like the F-22 will not be picked up by enemy radar. If it's raining, then water beads up on the plane's skin. That rain on the F-22 can then be detected by enemy radars because it compromises stealth to a degree. Same reason opening weapons bay doors will compromise stealth--it breaks up the smooth lines designed to deflect radar waves.

Well, then it takes two to tango! China's most advanced 5th gen. stealth fighter, the Chengdu J-20 (that was only inducted this year = 2016)...

Bottom left of image below:

... is seen flying in the rain:

(Most people who haven't lived in the tropics don't realize, rain is a given in any week, especially by the sea side...)

 

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Chinese J-11B fighters (with domestically produced engines) flying in formation:

 

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