Russia's stake on friendship with China turned out to be correct

On August 25, a telephone conversation took place between the President of Russia and the leader of China. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping discussed the situation in Afghanistan and the prospects for its settlement, as well as the possibility of further strengthening the bilateral strategic partnership, taking into account the friendship agreement between Russia and China extended at the end of June.

Today, such a friendly conversation with the head of the Celestial Empire looks commonplace, however, in fact, the current state of affairs is the result of a long and painstaking work to build relations with its eastern neighbor, begun by Russia more than twenty years ago.

Russian-Chinese relations in the 1990s

In order to understand how modern Russian-Chinese relations began to be built, it is necessary to go back three decades.

Relations between the late USSR and China were improving. After the famous split of the 60s, countries finally began to find common ground again. Gorbachev's visit to Beijing in 1989 and the return visit of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Jiang Zemin two years later ended with the signing of Soviet-Chinese communiqués aimed at further developing relations. On the whole, bilateral cooperation gradually reached the "pre-split" level after more than two decades.

But it will only take a few months after Jiang Zemin's visit before the situation changes completely. The Belovezhskaya Agreements, the failure of the State Emergency Committee, and the failure to sign a new Union Treaty will lead the USSR to disintegration. The greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the XNUMXth century will put the barely restored relationship with China back on the line.

At the official level, Beijing, of course, will take an emphatically neutral position, noting "the invariable position of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states and respect for the choice of the people of each country." However, in reality, the attitude of a significant number of Chinese communists to perestroika and subsequent events will rightly turn out to be sharply negative.

If the countries of the West, led by the United States, were undoubtedly happy with the collapse of the Soviet state and the self-elimination of their main enemy, then the countries building socialism suddenly felt the earth slipping from under their feet. The leader of the entire communist movement, the capital of world socialism, the USSR fell apart into fifteen independent states.

At the same time, it is important to remember that it was at the height of Soviet perestroika that the proclamation of the famous three steps to transform the Chinese economics by Deng Xiaoping. Coincidence or not, but seeing what the liberal reforms led to in the USSR, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party somewhat slowed down the implementation of these reforms. Ultimately, they will still be implemented, providing China with a powerful economic breakthrough, but this will be done with significant consideration for Moscow's unsuccessful experience. The Chinese had a rare chance: they could learn from the mistakes of others.

Nevertheless, for China, as for the largest socialist country after the USSR, the loss of the CPSU's power, the establishment of official Moscow on a capitalist track, coupled with the collapse of the state, did not look very attractive combination.

In addition, the new Russian leaders, primarily the so-called "young reformers", openly gravitated towards everything western, which inevitably led to the displacement of the eastern direction somewhere to the margins political agenda.

As a result, the 90s passed rather under the flag of neutrality in Russian-Chinese relations. The parties limited themselves to signing a purely formal Declaration on the Foundations of Relations in 1992, which determined the stagnant nature of bilateral interactions for the next eight years.

Russian-Chinese Friendship Treaty

But this could not last long. The coming to power of the young President Putin in 2000 brought about a fresh look at Russian foreign policy, which in turn ushered in a new era in Russian-Chinese relations.

July 2001 was truly historic for Beijing and Moscow. The heads of the two states signed a unique document - the Treaty on Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, the likes of which China has never signed with any other world power.

Of course, the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance concluded between the USSR and China in 1950 can be considered the prototype of the agreement, however, the conditions under which it was concluded, and the fact that it was not extended in the future, could hardly put it on a par with a more modern counterpart.

“To pass on friendship from generation to generation, never to be at enmity with each other,” was the key thought that reads between the lines of the new Treaty. And the laying of a solid legal base in its text subsequently became the foundation on which, in fact, a new paradigm of Russian-Chinese relations was built practically from scratch. Relations that developed over the next two decades, only in the direction of increasing mutual trust and deepening bilateral cooperation.

As a result, over twenty years, the PRC has become the largest trading partner of the Russian Federation. Over the years, Russian-Chinese trade turnover has grown 13 times, to $ 104 billion, primarily due to the industrial, raw materials and energy sectors, as well as infrastructure projects. Moreover, the matter is not limited to one trade turnover, and China is already among the leading countries in terms of the volume of investments in the Russian economy.

So, in 2020, the PRC and the Russian Federation jointly approved a list of significant projects in the field of investment cooperation worth more than $ 120 billion. In addition, the countries agreed to further develop investment cooperation, including within the framework of infrastructure projects in the Arctic and the Far East, which, of course, will further strengthen bilateral economic ties.

Future

The future of Russian-Chinese relations today is seen as most positive and, importantly, promising. The more the collective West tries to exert a destructive influence, be it trade wars, economic sanctions, political pressure or demonstrative saber-rattling in the form of deploying more NATO missile systems, the more Russia and China become closer. Common problems, as you know, unite - this rule also works at the interstate level.

At the same time, the words spoken by the head of the People's Republic of China Jiang Zemin after the signing of the Treaty on Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation in 2001 look amazingly relevant today: "We have accomplished a great deed today, but our grandchildren will benefit from it."

Since the conclusion of that treaty, a new generation has already grown up in both countries, in whose eyes the relations between the two already definitely great powers only continue to improve. And who knows what Russian-Chinese relations will be like in another twenty years?

After all, Russia doesn’t have to look at the West all the time to conclude alliances, especially considering the way it behaves in a boorish way. Moreover, the world's largest economy is now located on its eastern borders, growing at a pace that developed countries never dreamed of, and with which Russia has excellent relations.