Information paper – China’s International Relations with Russia
Russian-Chinese relations are an important part of the modern system of international relations. The way on how the relations between China and Russia are going on will largely depend on the whole course of political processes, at least within Eurasia. However, we can confidently say that the nature of Russian-Chinese relations have an objective side and will be influenced by their historical past. With hindsight, it is impossible to give guarantees that observed in the present trend of Russian-Chinese political rapprochement will continue in the future. First of all, because the relationship between the "Middle Kingdom," and Russia have a very ambiguous historical legacy. Stages of rapprochement between the two states alternated with periods of cool (if not tense) relations.
Key Factors
Russia and China have gone from cooperation on border issues (in the late 1850s - early 1860s) to create a defensive alliance (late 1890s) (Gabuev, 2015). In the second half of the XIX century, the territory of Russia was rapidly expanding. Entry into the Russian Empire Turkestan (the territory of modern Central Asian states), as well as the active development of Siberia and the Russian Far Eastern lands has led to the direct contact of the territorial possessions of Russia and China. This has necessitated the development of diplomatic contacts to define the border between the two countries.
Relations between Russia and China have a powerful impetus to the rise to power of the Russian Emperor Alexander III (1881). In 1898, a popular uprising began in China. This uprising was supported by the broad strata of Chinese society. Military intervention provoked strong anti-Western and anti-Russian sentiment in all sectors of Chinese society (Gabuev, 2015). Moreover, anti-Russian sentiment is magnified awareness that the role of interventionist acted as a de facto federal state. The result is that Russian-Chinese relations deteriorated by almost a quarter century.
In the early 1900s, virtually all of the positive results of bilateral cooperation reached by Russia and China over the past four decades were dashed. The main reason for this was the participation of Russia on the side of a number of Western powers in the military intervention against China.
In general, the relations between Russia and China have a rich, but extremely complex and even contradictory story in which the stages of a close encounter between the two countries alternated with stages of a sharp deterioration in relations.
After the proclamation of the Republic of China, the process of Sino-Soviet rapprochement sharply intensified. In no small did this measure contribute to the activities of the two leaders Joseph Stalin and Mao to establish a military-political alliance of socialist states, based on identical state ideology. As a result, since 1949, co-operation in political, economic, military and other spheres increased considerably.
Options
China carried out mass deliveries of the Soviet market of textile and light industry, as well as some types of non-ferrous metals (which in the USSR at that time were not made in sufficient quantities), had great importance for the Soviet industry. The Soviet Union in its turn provided aid to China in the construction of a number of large industrial and energy facilities, mass training of scientific and technical personnel for the growing needs of the Chinese economy.
A kind of culmination of China and Soviet Union rapprochement that time period was the joint participation of the USSR and the PRC in the war on the Korean Peninsula (1950-1953 years) on the side of the communist government of North Korea against the South Korean army, supported by the US and its allies.
The deterioration of relations began in the late 1950s and in the 1960s, they moved to the stage of political confrontation. Especially brightly, it was noticeable in the ideological sphere. Thus, the Soviet Union accused the ruling party of China - in the great-power chauvinism CCP (Chinese) and a departure from the principles of internationalism. China, in turn, accused the Communist Party in the revision of Marxism and the petty-bourgeois degeneration. Relationship between the CPC and the CPSU were broken off, and in the late 1960s, the Soviet Union and China were on the verge of a large-scale armed conflict.
The second Russian-Chinese rapprochement began when Russia after the October Revolution (1917) and the Civil War (1918-1920) radically changed the shape of their statehood, becoming a unitary socialist state (USSR).
Potential Obstacles
The current, already the third in the Russian-Chinese rapprochement actually began after the collapse of the USSR (1991), when Russia once again changed its form of statehood, becoming a bourgeois federal republic, the Russian Federation. (Paramonov, n.d.).
Potential Opportunities
Now Russia and China celebrate the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations, which took place over the decades a tortuous path from the Alliance, based on the ideological identity and solidarity bloc, then - hostility to the strategic partnership and cooperation in the framework of a new type of relationship. This character of relations between the two major neighboring powers, seemingly now a natural and even commonplace - weighty and significant phenomenon in world politics, the object of attention and analysis of many authoritative studies. I would like to make in this regard some of its own estimates and judgments with an emphasis on the sixty-year experience and the lessons of the relations with China.
Conclusion
For Russia, mainly in the development of relations with China are economic factors, while for China - political relations in Central Asia. Such a model of relations between Russia and China covers the period from the beginning of the XVII to the middle of the XIX century. Typologically it can be classified as a mixed model with the similarity with the socio-economic parameters of the two states. Civilization differences have a significant impact on the nature of their relationship. The history of relations between Russia and China, both political and economic-commercial complex and contradictory; however, it can be concluded that these relations have always been fruitful - even in times of recessions and cooling. History shows that China and Russia have been, and will remain reliable allies.
Works Cited
Gabuev, Aexander. A “Soft Aliance”?. A recent history of Russia–China relations. (2015). Web. 23 Feb. 2016
Paramonov, Vladimir. Central Eurasia. (n.d.). Web. 05 Feb 2016.
