Booming Chinese frontier town reveals growing Russian ties – and old divide

[pampango]

Manzhouli is thriving as China sucks in Russian raw materials and exports its consumer goods, but mutual distrust persists

Sino-Russian ties have turned this small Inner Mongolian landport into a prosperous trade hub. Now it hopes to benefit from the broader push for closer bilateral ties. China’s premier, Li Keqiang, signed 38 energy, trade and finance agreements in talks with his counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, in Moscow on Monday, including a 150bn yuan (£15bn) currency swap, and is due to meet Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

Russia exported 10m cubic metres of timber through Manzhouli last year, typifying China’s hunger for natural resources. Russia, in turn, has bought crops, textiles and other manufactured goods. Shoppers in Manzhouli tally their purchases: one woman had acquired this winter’s wardrobe for her family – two pairs of shoes each for her four sons – plus a washing machine, television and other domestic appliances.

Yet Manzhouli shopkeepers complain of a marked drop in customers this year, blaming the state of the Russian economy. Meanwhile, the slowdown in China’s property market could dent timber purchases. Hopes have been dashed before: bilateral trade grew at about 30% a year between 1999 and 2008, when it peaked at almost $57bn before slumping in the financial crisis. And for all the political noises, Chinese banks and investors have so far been reluctant to hand over money as Russia anticipated.

Jakobson thinks the issues run deeper: while both are authoritarian, their values are not the same. And while China may not like Japan or the US, it respects their achievements. “So many Chinese analysts, if I prod them, will respond: ‘What have we got to learn from Russia?’” she said.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/13/booming-chinese-frontier-town-reveals-growing-russian-ties--age-old-divide

[The Magistrate]

1. An Interesting Spot, Sir

It was the scene of major fighting late in 1929, when Chiang Hseuh-liang took a run at expropriating the Chinese Eastern Railway from the Soviet Union, and also the scene of a major, if belated and mutinous rising, against the Japanese in 1932, in opposition to their establishment of Manchukuo.

[DetlefK]

2. That last question is Russia's dilemma.

"What have we got to learn from Russia?"
What can Russia offer that we could admire, that we would copy, that we would want make our own?

- Russia has good scientists, but Putin's oppressive politics are driving them out: 1 in 4 Russians with a higher degree leave Russia, and that includes entrepreneurs and intellectuals.
- Something similar goes for art: The creeping fascism cannot accept deviant thinking, reflection or criticism. That's why homosexuals are hunted down in Russia and that's why Neonazi-mobs attack punk-concerts.
- What about technology? Is there a high-tech-product you can get from Russia?

Natural gas, oil, vodka and the AK-47 are still Russia's main exports.

If a country has nothing to offer in the present, it will seek refuge in the past: That's why Russia keeps playing to the glorious old days of the Soviet Union and the strong military that's a leftover from said time.




Russia faces the same conundrum as the extremists muslims: They have a golden past and they assume that this golden past entitles them to something in the present.

[pampango]

3. "Russia faces the same conundrum as the extremists muslims: They have a golden past and they assume

that this golden past entitles them to something in the present."

Interesting observation. Had not thought of that perspective.