The analog is that Russia set the standard for its railroad tracks at 5 feet or 60 inches. This was done to slow down the advance of invading armies. However, the rest of Europe adopted a standard of 4 feet 8 1/2 inches or 56.5 inches.
The result is that the transfer of bulk goods for export and import from and to Russia was substantially restricted because rail cars can’t move freely between Europe and Russia. The same holds true for trade with China.
China’s one belt one road can send high value manufactured goods by rail from Shanghai to Madrid without the delay of changing rail cars. Russia can’t do that.
Similarly, if China continues to isolate its social networks, Robb’s point is that artificial intelligence applications built for Facebook, Twitters, etc., won’t work with China’s social networks, and vice versa. The railway metaphor applies. The AI relevance is certainly to big data.
It follows that China is faced with an existential choice — open its networks to global connections and and the influences that will flow in with them, or remain a closed society and lose competitive advantages to other nations that stay connected globally.
