From Chinese Civil War to trade war, the Sino-Russia embrace endures

China celebrated its 70th national day earlier this month with pomp and ceremony. While the country paid tributes to the communist heroes who helped secure a glorious lasting victory over the Kuomintang, little has been said about the instrumental role played by Russia, China’s largest neighbour, in the Chinese Civil War.

On the outskirts of Moscow stands a memorial dedicated to this lesser known chapter of China’s history. It’s a mansion which housed the Sixth Chinese Communist Party Congress in July 1928. At the time, the Russian government had allowed their comrades in China like Zhou Enlai to seek political refuge in Russia, following a failed revolution which cost the lives of 5,000 Chinese communists.

In this historic meeting, the Chinese Communist Party addressed the reasons for its defeat and devised a new strategy, one that allowed it to eventually defeat the Kuomintang and establish the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

“This meeting played a strong role in reconstructing the Communist Party and paving the path to victory,” Ma Xian Jun, Deputy Director of the Sixth Chinese Communist Party Congress Memorial Museum in Moscow told me.

Fast forward to today, Russia and China are closer than ever. Seventy years after the end of the Chinese Civil War, the two superpowers have returned to being allies in a very different sort of war, as I discovered during my recent visit to Russia to film a documentary series on China’s Belt and Road Initiative along the Sino-Russian Economic Corridor. 

Amid escalating tensions between China and the United States over unresolved trade disputes, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have closed ranks to denounce American protectionism.

“It’s not that Russia has taken China’s side in the trade war,” said Professor Sergey Lukonin, Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Centre for Chinese Political and Economic Studies.

“Russia has in fact taken an Anti-American position. In Russia’s opinion, America has broken the rules of international trade and is guilty of using economic and political tools to promote its own economic interests.”

In recent months, Moscow’s support for Beijing has gone beyond just rhetoric. When China was forced to look for alternative sources of meat after its trade talks with the US fell through, Russia was quick to help fill in the gap. The country pledged to supply its neighbour with 48,000 tonnes of meat by 2020.

Russia has also protested against American economic policy by welcoming Huawei with open arms, despite calls from the US for countries to ban the Chinese tech giant over allegations of espionage.

Just recently, the company joined forces with Russian firm MTC to develop a 5G network in the country.

“America’s actions against Huawei were not just related to trade or the economy,” Prof Lukonin told me.

“This is the battle for the future, for new digital markets and the trading of digital products. To Russia, China is merely presenting its own alternative to American technology.”

This embrace of Chinese technology can also be witnessed in Russia’s manufacturing industry. Tula, a province located about 200 km from Moscow, recently opened its doors to Great Wall Motors, China’s largest Sport Utility Vehicle producer.

This investment has created jobs for nearly 1,000 locals, most of whom relish the opportunity to work with robots and other state-of-the-art Chinese manufacturing equipment.

“Learning from the Chinese is very beneficial to my career,” says Ivan Martynenko, an assembly supervisor at Great Wall Motors’ new plant in Tula. “They are one of the leaders in the manufacturing industry.”

Its expansion to Russia cost Great Wall Motors more than US$500 million. But its yield is expected to be US$2.6 Billion. It’s projects like these that remind Russia how much it has benefitted from Chinese investment over the past five years.

In 2014, when Moscow was slapped with tough sanctions by the US and its allies, following its annexation of Crimea, China helped soften the impact of these measures on Russia’s population by investing heavily in its neighbour, not just in manufacturing but also in the energy sector.

“Chinese capital in this industry helps us develop new gas and mineral deposits to export to the global market,” says Prof Lukonin. “It demonstrates how integrated our two countries’ economies are.”

This level of integration with Russia has given China another cause for celebration this year. 2019 also marks 70 years of Sino-Russia ties — a relationship dubbed by both countries as “the strategic partnership”. It spans not just trade but a multitude of areas including education, culture and defence.

This extensive cooperation between two of the world’s largest superpowers will continue to be watched closely by the rest of the world as the trade war intensifies and as Moscow remains a key player in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Charles Phang is a Senior Producer with CNA’s Documentary team.