Research on Classification of Countries Along One Belt and One Road: Clustering v.s. Domain Expert Method : based on points table of essential data about the level of cooperation

This paper employs a cluster approach to study the trade relationships among One belt and One road country through 30 characters concerned by researchers. We show that these countries can be divided into three main parts, and PCA are carried out, which hints to a core-periphery structure in these countries. Also, highly-interconnected trade clusters results are compared with domain expert methods published in literatures. It can be seen that; rich countries display more similarity and are more clustered. The most important factor for measuring level of cooperation between OBOR country with China is "Investment situation from Asian Investment Bank", then, "Bilateral currency swaps", "Local currency interchange liquidation" are the main factors for measuring level of cooperation. These results reported proposed here are more reasonable than most of results published recently (such as that of national information center of China). Finally, some discussions were proposed on this topic. The results are helpful for finding a better way to further promote free and inclusive trade under BRI and for constructing a more prosperous country relationship.