
This game has received 24009 plays and 81% of game players have upvoted this game. Tiles of the Unexpected Online is in the category of Brain. In Part 2, I will focus on China, USA and Vietnam, as well as the significance of mahjong being played on the sea.Tiles of the Unexpected is an online game that you can play in modern browsers for free. The South China Morning Post viewed it as “a small step forward in forging a Beijing-Moscow alliance to bypass the US dollar in the global monetary system” (“Moscow and Beijing join forces to bypass US dollar in world money market,” March 17, 2017). And in March 2017, Bank Rossii, Russia’s central bank, opened a branch in Beijing, its first branch abroad.

This was followed by a second deal in November 2014. As the Crimean crisis unfolded in 2014, Russia forged an energy deal with China, estimated to be worth $400 billion.

Even such famed dissidents as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky insisted that Ukraine was an integral part of Russian history and, indeed, of Russia” (Washington Post, March 5, 2014).Īs Russia’s right leg and arm blocks the West’s further advance, her left hand reaches out to China. The Black Sea Fleet-Russia’s means of projecting power in the Mediterranean-is based by long-term lease in Sevastopol, in Crimea. Some of the most important battles for Russian freedom, starting with the Battle of Poltava in 1709, were fought on Ukrainian soil. Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined before then. Russian history began in what was called Kievan-Rus. “The West must understand that, to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country. Ukraine is simply not just one of the New Independent States comprising Russia’s “near-abroad.” Ukraine’s significance to Russia is all-encompassing: historical, political, strategic, religious, and emotional. According to Russia’s version of events, the US reneged on this promise “as NATO added 12 Eastern European countries in three subsequent rounds of enlargement.” As Ukraine’s political axis tilted more to the West, Russia’s fear worsened. She feels insecure, threatened and betrayed because according to her diplomats, during the reunification of Germany, the US promised the Soviet Union that NATO would not expand eastward. Her foot is stepping on US’s leg, her right hand extending far to her right side, gesturing the US-led NATO to stop-stop expanding. Russia may appear indifferent but it is far from that.

This reflects the post-Cold war political order, ushered in by the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In the game, Russia is left with only her panties. We have been pushing for an early implementation all along” (Japan Times, November 29, 2014). Enabling such communication would be a great step forward in avoiding an unexpected situation. As Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, Chief of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces’ Joint Staff, once suggested: There must be a “communication mechanism both the navies and air forces.
#War mahjong tiles of the unexpected free
As she slowly breaks free from her post- World War pacifism, she might as well hedge her chances and seek some form of crisis management mechanism with China.

In September 2015, the Diet, Japan’s parliament, passed a law that would allow their military to fight overseas, a reinterpretation of their Constitution’s prohibition against it.īut Japan is not taking any chances. Indeed, Japan is slowly breaking away from the post-WW 2 order. She keenly examines her tiles, perhaps looking for a way to rearrange it so she could boost her strengths. Yet despite her utter nakedness, her pacific face shows no trace of defeat. Her ability to parlay her economic gains into military might is being constrained by her pacifist Constitution. This reflects the status quo post-bellum that the US imposed on Japan. If she loses, she’ll have to leave and let another player take her place. A player gets booted out of the game when the only thing to remove is her presence.Īmong them, Japan is completely naked. In this mahjong, losing entails removing one item of clothing. China-her rise, decline, and re-emergence is arguably the longue durée shaping the geopolitical history of this region. It’s apt that mahjong is the game symbolizing their geopolitical struggle, not only because mahjong involves skill, strategy, and serendipity, but also because China, where the game originated, is also the longest surviving player in this geopolitical theater.
