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World Affairs
Russia and China: Partners For Peace
Mikhail L Titarenko
After reconciliation and settlement of their deep differences which lasted for more than thirty years, Sino-Russian relations are now characterised by both parties as one of "Strategic Partnership". The several aspects of this multi-faceted relationship are dealt with by the leading Russian Sinologist, academician Titarenko. Just as their erstwhile hostility shaped the previous century, so too, the determined pursuit of their common interests may shape developments in Eurasia.
Russia and China have entered the new millennium as two friendly powers promoting a relationship of strategic interaction and good neighbourliness. Their leaders’ resoluteness to build such a relationship is in consonance with the vital interests of each of the two nations as well as the larger interest of universal peace, security and stability.
The Russian Federation (RF) President, Vladimir Putin inherited the process of friendship, cooperation and strategic partnership between Russia and China that took shape in the 1990s. He has gone a step further in his effort to establish a deeper understanding with the leaders of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), intensify and provide new positive incentives to Russian-Chinese relations, as well as to give a new quality to Russian-Chinese cooperation. The development of all these factors is evident in the political, commercial, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres.
In the political sphere, this strategic partnership became more profound and concrete, with special emphasis on bilateral cooperation aimed at the search for mutually acceptable solutions of international issues, overcoming conflict situations in various regions of the world, and the mutual strengthening of national defence potentials.
In the Joint Declaration, signed in 1996 by the then RF President Boris Yeltsin and the PRC Chairman Jiang Zemin, strategic partnership was oriented mainly towards political interaction in the international sphere. More recently, the first plane of Russian-Chinese cooperation has been marked not so much by declarations, but rather by specific deeds that will add social, economic and cultural components to the political basis of Russian-Chinese strategic partnership.
The mechanism of summit and high-level meetings has been made more operational. It is now being efficiently supplemented by the working structures of meetings between prime ministers and heads of government-to-government commissions, as well as by the growing cooperation in the fields of culture, education and science. People’s diplomacy, too, has started to play a notable role.
Four summits between President Vladimir Putin and Chairman Jiang Zemin took place in 2000. In the summer of 2001, President Putin had two meetings with Chairman Jiang: first, in June, during the jubilee summit of the "Shanghai Five" in Shanghai; and second, in July when the PRC Chairman made an official visit to Russia. In the autumn of 2001, President Putin again visited the PRC to take part in the APEC Summit in Shanghai. Other events in the same year include: first, the visit by the PRC Premier Zhu Rongji to Russia; second, the important and productive exchange of visits at the level of vice-premiers and defence ministers; and third, the visit by highly-positioned officials of the PRC Military Council to Moscow.
Signed in Moscow on July 16, 2001, the Russian-Chinese Treaty of Good-Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation sums up past confrontation and sets the task to continue building a new type of relationship between the two countries during the twenty-first century. It also creates favourable conditions for mutually beneficial cooperation and sustained security aimed at the prosperity of the two nations.
The good-neighbourly cooperation of Russia and China is manifested in the mutual respect that they have demonstrated for each other’s choice. Russia is willing to take into consideration all specifics of China’s policy. Speaking at a press conference following his visit to the Peoples Republic of China, the Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov recognised the need for having a special approach towards China, because the Chinese leadership, as he put it, is regarded as a special partner. The specifics is evident in their vision of long-term objectives; while the clarity of vision is apparent, the ways to reach the objectives are not all that simple.
An important factor that has strengthened the understanding and confidence between the two countries is Russia’s consistent position in: first, supporting the PRC’s course for reunification of the motherland; and second, countering any attempts being made by certain forces who seek to create a situation of "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan"; and third, thus to impede the political dialogue on the Taiwan issue – a dialogue which would eventually result in the peaceful reunification of Taiwan with the PRC.
Russian diplomacy has inherited this line from its Soviet predecessors. Even in the worst years, when Soviet-Chinese relations were at a low, Russia invariably pursued the "one China" policy and consistently worked for the restoration of China’s legitimate rights in the United Nations. On its part, the PRC invariably has been supporting Russia’s struggle against separatist and international terrorist forces in Chechnya and clearly expressed respect for the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.
The position of India with regard to this issue has been similar to that of USSR/Russia. Like Russia, India, too always considered Taiwan as an inalienable part of the Chinese territory. India takes the same position with regard to Tibet. India seems to be burdened by the presence of a sizeable Tibetan population within its territory, led by the Dalai Lama. In keeping with her democratic status, India is constrained to provide Tibetan immigrants with certain rights and living conditions At the same time, objectively viewed, India as we see it, tends to restrict the political activities of this group and minimise the negative influence of the Tibetan factor on Indian-Chinese relations. This is amply borne out by the fact that the Indian Government does now allow the Dalai Lama to conduct any political activities in the territory of India.
Influenced by the Cold War, China’s lop-sided orientation towards Pakistan is being replaced today by a more balanced policy, designed to develop relations with all countries according to the principles of peaceful coexistence. Russia is content to see the efforts being taken by both Beijing and New Delhi towards the development of good-neighbourly relations and cooperation.
The development of Russian-Chinese strategic partnership in the field of international relations contributes to the construction of a new democratic order on the basis of the principles of peaceful coexistence. Respect for interests of each member of the international community in the construction of a polycentric world that would include the diversity and interaction of various civilisations are other features of the interests of Russia, India and China. All this has served as an incentive that has led to the restoration of traditional friendly cooperation between Russia and India, as well as the tangible progress of relations between India and China. A positive outcome has been the more active search of solutions for the problems, which in the earlier period cast a negative influence on the course of Sino-Indian relations. Facing the common challenges and threats raised by international terrorism – the threat to each nation’s integrity and dignity – the people of Russia, India and China are acutely aware of the need for their cooperation in the resolution of their common problems. Certainly, there can be no talk about any sort of alliance aimed against third countries. The allegations by some observers who suspect that coincidence of interests among Russia, India and China is aimed against the United States or Pakistan reflect nothing else but the observers’ adherence to old stereotypes of the Cold War-style confrontational thinking and their misunderstanding of the current new realities.
Neither Russia nor China can accept the policy designed to make NATO an international global policeman and to expand the sphere of influence of NATO to the East; nor can they reconcile to NATO taking advantage of the current difficulties of some Central Asian states in order to undermine their relations with Russia and China, as well as to establish the American domination in the region. Conducted currently by the US Administration, the policy of hegemony would hardly, if ever, bring laurels to the United States. Russia, India and China, each pursuing its independent course, will seek to convince the United States to take account of the norms of international law as well as the interests of the international community and each of its members.
Russia and China unanimously condemn the international action by Islamic fundamentalists and their attempts to destabilise the situation in different countries. In this context, an important point is that China fully supports Russia’s position and action taken in the struggle against Chechen terrorists and their international accomplices.
Russia, India and China, keeping their own respective interests in mind, are keen to establish a multi-faceted cooperation with the United States, other developed Western countries and Japan. At the same time, however, while asserting its own dignity and understanding of its role and responsibilities in international affairs, Russia, in our view, cannot accept the situation when the role of the UN is ignored and the elementary norms of international law get breached. Such breaches take the form of "humanitarian interventions" or acts of ill-will and aggression against nations that "dare" to stand by their interests which might run counter to the will of some other countries in the West.
The last year of the twentieth century was marked by a tangible progress in Russian-Chinese trade and economic cooperation. The period 1996-1998 was marked by a sharp decline in Russian-Chinese economic and commercial relations. The detrimental effect on the latter was caused by the financial crises of 1997 in Asia and 1998 in Russia. Owing to their joint efforts, Russia and China managed to overcome the negative impact of the financial crisis of 1997 and provide a positive impulse to the growth of their bilateral trade. While in 1999, the volume of trade between the two countries was under US$ 6 billion, in 2000 it reached over US$ 8 billion, and in all probability in 2001 the figure will exceed US$ 10 billion. In January 2001 alone, the volume of Russian-Chinese trade amounted to over US$ one billion, of which US$ 907 million accounted for Russian exports. The two sides do their utmost for making bilateral trade more balanced and mutually beneficial, and in this area too, progress is evident. In 2000, Russian imports from China, although tangibly less sizeable than exports to the PRC, has grown by 70 per cent. Formerly recorded as eleventh in the list of China’s foreign trade partners, Russia has moved up to the eighth position.
For the stable growth of trade between the two countries, mutual efforts have to be made to improve the structure of trade and to sustain high volumes of supplies. Today, the bulk of Russia’s exports to China constitute ferrous and non-ferrous metals, chemicals, energy resources, fertilisers and timber products. While the more recent period has been marked by the trend of growth in supplies of technology products, the structure of Russian-Chinese trade on both sides could be better. The RF Government has announced its preparedness to encourage and support Russian exporters of machines and equipment and even provide them with loans and guarantees.
By now, both sides have reached an understanding regarding the need to: first, reorient the major focus from conventional trade to economic-technology cooperation; and second, create the proper climate and guarantees for mutual investments. In the last couple of years, the two countries have signed contracts in the sphere of technology transfer worth approximately US$ 2 billion.
Greater emphasis has to be placed on building an investment climate. The time is ripe for an agreement of cooperation in the field of investment to be drafted following the recently signed trade agreement. Quite meaningfully, the main agenda for negotiations between Herman Gref, the RF Minister for Economy, Science and Trade, and his Chinese partners included areas, such as the learning of the Chinese experience in lending, attracting investments and restructuring state-run enterprises.
Growing prospects for the expansion of Russian-Chinese long-term cooperation are assured if Russia’s efforts for development of Siberia and the Far East are coordinated mutually with the Chinese leaders’ plan to bridge the gap between the coastal and inland western / north-western provinces of the PRC. Russia and China face similar problems in this area. Accelerated social, economic and cultural development of the Siberian and Far Eastern regions will be of paramount importance for Russia in the twenty-first century. The development of western and north-western provinces will be of comparable significance for China. Supplementing one another and facilitating their mutual development, Russia and China can cooperate efficiently in this sphere. In this context, special emphasis should be placed on the significant role of long-term projects of economic cooperation such as: (a) construction of a modern automobile road via the Russian Altai Republic to the PRC; (b) construction of new bridges across the border rivers in the Chita and Amur regions as well as in the Khabarovsk territory; (c) improvement and modernisation of railroads that link the north-eastern provinces of China with cities of the Primorskii (maritime) territory; and (d) construction of the Kavytkinskii gas pipeline from the Irkoutsk region to China, as well as the oil pipeline from Angarsk through to the Chinese oilfields in Daqing and then to sea ports in north-eastern China. Other large-scale projects are under consideration at the present.
Expansion of region-to-region cooperation between the Russian Federal constituencies, on the one hand, and Chinese provinces and cities of central subordination, on the other hand, is certainly a positive factor in the development of cooperation between the two countries. On the Russian side, 51 federal units, that is, territories, regions and republics of the Russian Federation, cooperated with Chinese regions on a permanent basis in 2000. The border regions of each of the two countries are particularly most active in such cooperation. In the course of negotiations at the level of central agencies and inter-regional associations, Russia and China have developed the most favoured nation (MFN) legal regime for trade and tourist exchange. Pursuing the task of countering the illegal trade of drugs and illegal migration as well as to properly equip their border-pass stations, the two sides have established the joint working group for consideration of all such matters.
Comprehensive progress of relations is manifested in their balanced development in the political, economic and trade spheres, as well as in the fields of humanitarian contacts, culture and defence. Therefore, Russian-Chinese relations acquire features of interactive strategic partnership.
Progress of cooperation in the spheres of culture, education and science has been evident in the operation of the bilateral Commission at the Prime Ministers’ level. The visit by the PRC Premier Li Lanqing to Moscow in December 2000 resulted in signing of the RF-PRC agreement on plans for cooperation in the spheres of culture and education. Russian-Chinese exchange of professionals in the field of culture, students as well as young scientists and scholars is growing.
The popular slogan, "Let all flowers blossom and let all academics compete" comes to define the spirit of academic exchange between the two countries. Cooperation is growing successfully in disciplines, such as economics, law, philosophy, history, linguistics and literature. Thus, the Russian and Chinese public get a good chance to be exposed to the works of excellence in philosophy and literature of the two countries.
Set forth by Deng Xiaoping in the period of Soviet-Chinese normalisation, the formula, "To close the past and to open the future" proves to be a wise tenet, that must be followed by the policy-makers of the two countries. Such an approach can help iron out the difficulties that characterised relations in the past and can be productive in meeting the interests of stronger friendship, understanding and cooperation between the two great nations.
Both at the bilateral and multilateral levels, the development of Russian-Chinese strategic partnership is of an exceptionally constructive nature and aims at strengthening peace and universal security. The Shanghai Five, later on transformed into the Shanghai Organisation of Cooperation, has served a new and tremendously significant model for international cooperation. This form of cooperation is truly innovative. Multilateral and multifaceted interactions enable the member countries to develop new principles and new forms of relations, which in future can become a prototype for relations of great, medium-sized and small countries within the framework of a fair democratic order. In this sense, the Russian-Chinese partnership really serves the cause of peace, international security and development.