China View: Sino-Siberian Education
Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
While the expression “Siberian Education” may sound like a 2013 drama movie to some, diplomatically-speaking, Siberia remains an unresearched topic in East Asian Politics. With the term “Siberia,” geography indicates the Russian region that begins past the Urals and spreads until the Pacific Ocean. This area of over 13 million square kilometers is home to no more than 33 million people, often distributed towards the Southern federal provinces (or oblast) bordering Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, and North Korea.
When analyzing Russia, Western Russia typically emerges as more economically developed and wealthy compared to the East. But, what the public may ignore is that Eastern Russia benefits from natural resources which importance may be overlooked by Moscow. Beijing, on the other hand, is very attracted to the sources of oil and petrol it smells coming from up North towards the Mainland. As seen from previous articles published on the China View column of Modern Treatise, where many countries see the glass half empty, China has the habit of seeing it half full. Siberia is just another of the many developing areas across the world that China values creating strong ties with.
Russia occupies an incredibly vast territory but, in truth, Siberia is quite new to Moscow. In fact, most of the Siberian lands only came under the rule of Russia during the Tsarist period of the 17th to mid-18th century, when Russians reached the shores of the Amur River. Below, a map will demonstrate better what this territory encloses. In order to connect these lands that are exceptionally demanding and threatening due to their year-long harsh climate, the last Tsars of Russia were committed to building a railway that would connect the West to the Far East. The Trans-Siberian Railway has been operating since 1916, connecting Moscow to Vladivostok, and can be considered an inestimable patrimony left by the Tsarist government to Leninist revolutionaries. While the consolidation of Russia as it is geographically recognized today occurred later under Stalin, highlighting this part of history is important to allow readers understand that Far East Russia - the area sharing borders with China - is completely different from its European counterpart. Hence, when discussing about Siberia, one should think of a society that is socially, ethnically and culturally different from the Russians living in Saint Petersburg or Moscow.
"The Trans-Siberian Railway." (CREDIT: Condé Nast)
The extension of the Trans-Siberian Railway that includes Mongolia and China certainly has had a role in fostering Sino-Mongolian-Russian relations. As shown on the map above, Moscow is indirectly linked to both Ulaanbataar and Beijing, encouraging trade via train. One issue Russia may face when dealing with China is that the Russian Central Government is located inconveniently far to exercise the same control it imposes in Western Russia to the Far East as well. According to the New York Times, Chinese migration into Vladivostok and the Amur River area may be a concern for Russians. Considering the population of Siberia in comparison to the 1.4 billion Chinese residing in the PRC, East Russia is essentially a vast empty land that would be of use to distribute the Chinese population in a more comfortable manner. But, of course, it is very difficult that a figure like Putin would ever allow China to take over this oil-rich region. The Diplomat also believes that the notion that large groups of Chinese are going to move to Russia is only a myth because law enforcement has become more vigilant as tourism increased in Siberia.
While, academic books recount a long history of friendship between Russia and China, none has truly forgotten the period of the Sino-Soviet Split highlighting that, with or without a communist ideology, these societies were fundamentally different from the start. While the reasons for this are infinite, one could mention that since the beginning, the Russian and Chinese revolutions were led by different groups, being the proletariat on one side and the rural masses on the other. From here, the inevitable implication that these societies would be constructed upon diverging principles.
The 2nd July 2020 brought these differences back to the surface when Chinese journalists claimed the area surrounding Vladivostok (above North Korea) belonged to the Qing Dynasty. Going back to the interactive map previously shown in the article “The Lost World of Tibet”, one could see that this is true, but also that this was true in the 1900s and may no longer be now. This claim, expressed by a CGTN producer on Twitter, sparked discontent among Siberians and the general reading public. Regarding the announcement by the Russian Embassy to China that Vladivostok would celebrate the 160th anniversary since its foundation, CGTN producer Shen Shiwei declared that “the city was Haishenwai as Chinese land, before Russia annexed it via unequal Treaty of Beijing” and that this tweet by the Russian Embassy “recalled bitter memories of those humiliated days in the 1860 for Chinese.”
The Century of Humiliation is considered an important period in Chinese history which viewed foreign colonial powers attempting to gain sovereignty over the Qing Dynasty. During these times, China was negatively impacted by multiple unequal treaties, eventually ceding or leasing territories to Great Britain (e.g. Hong Kong), Germany (e.g. Qingdao, motherland of the Tsingtao Beer), and Japan, given a free pass to invade parts of China after the international community agreed to its Twenty-One Demands at the Treaty of Versailles. The Japanese occupation of China marking the years 1937-45 was even more disastrous for Chinese society.
What is important to understand is that China is sensitive when it comes to discussing its history, which may explain its modern approach when practicing power politics, but also its capability to apply pressure to achieve goals thanks to its overwhelming economic power.
The energy and gas sectors are one way to extend this power and the 2019 Power of Siberia gas pipeline project may be among the largest-scale energy projects ever made between Gazprom and its Chinese counterpart. Other than improving diplomatic ties with Russia, this deal is an agreement of mutual cooperation for the development of Northern Chinese provinces and the Russian Far East Oblasts. Below, a CGTN video will explain how this project is likely to impact both economies.
According to a CGTN interview to the Dean of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy, Lin Boqiang, it is believed that the Power of Siberia will add 14% to China’s energy supply, and will inevitably strengthen connections with Russia at the expense of U.S. companies in the region.
Opportunities for Sino-Russian relations to improve, therefore, arise continuously. Despite what foreign media may say, China is aware Russia is geopolitically located past the Northern borders but it is not certain that it would risk ruining ties with Moscow and seize a large share of its population in Siberia. On the other hand, projects like the Power of Siberia and the Belt and Road Initiative as a whole are possibly taking Chinese to work and live abroad for a period of time, but this is not necessarily for reasons related to political strategy.
