Maybe it is as Alexander Grischuk says. The Chinese players are good friends and a lot of games end in a draw. In all seriousness, it just looks like a case of neither player being sure how to improve their position while also creating something new. I'm not sure why black didn't just continue development with something like d5 or Nf6, but perhaps he thought white had some preparation and didn't want to deal with a lot of calculation. Peculiar indeed.
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