History of Sino-Russian relations

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Prior to the 17th century, China and Russia were on opposite ends of

, but after 1689, China and Russia made peace and established trade agreements.

By the mid-19th century, China's economy and military lagged far behind the colonial powers. It signed

agreements including legal immunity for foreigners and foreign businesses.

Meanwhile, Russian culture and society, especially the elite, were westernized. The ruler of Russia officially was no longer called tsar but emperor, an import from Western Europe.^[1][2]

Issues that affected only Russia and China were mainly the Russian-Chinese border since Russia, unlike the Western countries, bordered China. Many Chinese people felt humiliated by China's submission to foreign interests, which contributed to widespread hostility towards the emperor of China.

In 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. However, China's new regime, known as the Beiyang government, was forced to sign more unequal treaties with Western countries and with Russia.^[3][4] In recent years, Russia and China signed a border agreement.^[5]

In late 1917,

.

In 1937, the Kuomintang and the communists formed a new alliance to oppose the

soon erupted again between them.

In 1949, with Soviet support, the communists won the

," gradually eliminated most of his rivals throughout his 27 years in power.

Ideological tension between the two countries emerged after Stalin's death in 1953. Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin's crimes in 1956, and both regimes started to criticise each other. At first, the criticism was indirect and muted, but in 1961, Mao accused the Soviet leadership of revisionism, and the alliance openly ended. Both countries competed for control over foreign communist states and political movements, and many countries had two rival communist parties that concentrated their fire on each other.

In 1969, a

in 1964, who abandoned many Soviet reforms criticized by Mao. However, China's anti-Soviet rhetoric intensified under the influence of Mao's closest supporters, the Gang of Four. Mao died in 1976, and the Gang of Four lost power in 1978.

After a period of instability,

anti-revisionism

.

China's internal reforms did not bring an immediate end to conflict with the Soviet Union. In 1979,

. In 1982, Brezhnev made a speech offering reconciliation with China, and Deng agreed to restore diplomatic relations.

In 1985,

Russian Federation

in 1991.

.

Imperial period

Ob River toward "Lake Kythay". (Map by Giacomo Gastaldi

, 1550)

Lying at opposite ends of Eurasia, the two countries had little contact before about 1640.[6] Both had to deal with the steppe nomads, Russia from the south and China from the northwest. Russia became a northern neighbor of China when in 1582–1643 Russian adventurers made themselves masters of the Siberian forests. There were three points of contact: 1) south to the Amur River basin (early), 2) east along the southern edge of Siberia toward Peking (the main axis) and 3) in Turkestan (late).

The Oirats transmitted some garbled and incorrect descriptions of China to the Russians in 1614, the name "Taibykankan" was used to refer to the Wanli Emperor by the Oirats.^[7]

South to the Amur (1640–1689)

About 1640 Siberian cossacks spilled over the

Russian expansion eastward along the southern edge of Siberia

Russian expansion in Siberia was confined to the forested area because the Cossacks were skilled in forest travel and were seeking furs while the forest natives were weak and the steppe nomads warlike. In the west, Siberia borders on the

. West of Siberia, Russia slowly expanded down the Volga, around the southern Urals and out into the Kazakh steppe.

Early contacts

From the time of

in 1618/19.

After the Russians reached

, and south (slow but safe).

Early Russo-Chinese relations were difficult for three reasons: mutual ignorance, lack of a common language and the Chinese wish to treat the Russians as tributary barbarians, something that the Russians would not accept and did not fully understand. The language problem was solved when the Russians started sending Latin-speaking westerners who could speak to the

.

In 1654

.

Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689)

After their first victory at

After Nerchinsk regular caravans started running from Nerchinsk south to Peking. Some of the traders were Central Asians. The round trip took from ten to twelve months. The trade was apparently profitable to the Russians but less so to the Chinese. The Chinese were also disenchanted by the drunken brawls of the traders. In 1690 the Qing defeated the Oirats at the Great Wall and gained complete control over the Khalka Mongols in

Li-Fan Yuan

suggesting that future trade use this route.

In 1712

' of 'Record of Strange Regions' was long the main source of Chinese knowledge of Russia.

About this time the Kangxi Emperor began to put pressure on Saint Petersburg to delineate the Mongolian border west of the Argun, and several Russian caravans were held up. In July 1719 Lev Izmailov^[10] was sent as ambassador to Peking where he dealt with Tulishen, but the Chinese would not deal with the trade problem until the border was dealt with. Izmailov returned to Moscow in January 1722. Lorents Lange was left as consul in Peking, but was expelled in July 1722. He returned to Selenginsk and sent reports to Petersburg.

Treaty of Kyakhta (1729)

Just before his death, Peter the Great decided to deal with the border problem. The result was the

trade southeast to Peking.

The needs for communication between the Russian and Chinese traders at Kyakhta and elsewhere resulted in the development of a pidgin, known to linguists as

The treaties of Nerchinsk and Kyakhta were the basis of Russo-Chinese relations until the Treaty of Aigun in 1858. The fixed border helped the Chinese to gain full control of Outer Mongolia and annex Xinjiang by about 1755. Russo-Chinese trade shifted from Nerchinsk to Kyakhta and the Nerchensk trade died out by about 1750. (Local trade in this area shifted east to a border town called Tsurukhaitu on the Argun River).^[12]

Turkestan

After the Russians reached

1755–1917

万国来朝图

Meeting in Central Asia

As the Chinese Empire established its control over Xinjiang in the 1750s, and the Russian Empire expanded into Kazakhstan at the beginning and in the middle of the 19th century, the two empires' areas of control met in what is today eastern Kazakhstan and Western Xinjiang. The 1851 Treaty of Kulja legalized trade between both countries in the region.^[14]

Russian encroachment

In 1858, during the

Island.

The Manza War (1868) was the first attempt by Russia to expel the Chinese from the territory that it controlled.[15] Hostilities broke out around Peter the Great Gulf, Vladivostok, when the Russians tried to shut off gold mining operations and to expel Chinese workers there.^[16] The Chinese resisted a Russian attempt to take Askold Island and in response, two Russian military stations and three Russian towns were attacked by the Chinese, and the Russians failed to oust the Chinese.^[17]

Russia's special status

Unlike other Western countries, who deal with the Qing court on a monarch to monarch basis, Sino–Russian relations were governed by administrative bodies, the Qing's Board of Foreign Affairs (Lifan Yuan) and the Russian Senate (Senat). Unlike the Netherlands and Portugal in the 18th century, who were considered part of the tribute system,^[18] Russia was able to trade directly with Beijing, and their relations were under the jurisdiction of Mongolian and Manchu border officials.^[19] Russia established an Orthodox mission in Beijing in the early 18th century, and was able to escape the anti Christian persecutions of the Qing dynasty.^[20]

The Great Game and the 1870s Xinjiang border Dispute

A British observer, Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh Boulger, suggested a British-Chinese alliance to check Russian expansion in Central Asia.

During the Ili crisis, when Qing China threatened to go to war against Russia over the Russian occupation of Ili, a British officer, Charles George Gordon, was sent to China by Britain to advise China on its military options against Russia in a potential war between China and Russia.^[21]

The Russians occupied the city of Kuldja, in Xinjiang, during the

crushed the rebels, they demanded for Russia to return the occupied regions.

General Zuo Zongtang was outspoken in calling for war against Russia and hoped to settle the matter by attacking Russian forces in Xinjiang with his Xiang army. In 1878, tension increased in Xinjiang, and Zuo massed Chinese troops toward Russian-occupied Kuldja. Chinese forces also fired on Russian expeditionary forces originating from Yart Vernaic, expelled them, and caused a Russian retreat.^[22]

The Russians observed that the Chinese building up their arsenal of modern weapons during the Ili crisis since they had bought thousands of rifles from Germany.^[23] In 1880, massive amounts of military equipment and rifles were shipped via boats to China from Antwerp as China purchased torpedoes, artillery, and 260,260 modern rifles from Europe.^[24]

A Russian military observer, D. V. Putiatia, visited China in 1888 and found that in

Compared to the Russian-controlled areas, more benefits were given to the Muslim Kirghiz in the Chinese-controlled areas. Russian settlers fought against the Muslim nomadic Kirghiz, which led the Russians to believe that the Kirghiz would be a liability in any conflict against China. The Muslim Kirghiz were sure that a war would have China defeat Russia.[26]

The Qing dynasty forced Russia to hand over disputed territory in the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881) in what was widely seen by the west as a diplomatic victory for the Qing.^[27] Russia acknowledged that China could pose a serious military threat.^[28] Mass media in the West portrayed China as a rising military power because of its modernization programs and as a major threat to the West. They even invoked fears that China would manage to conquer western colonies like Australia.^[29]

Russian sinologists, the Russian media, the threat of internal rebellion, the pariah status inflicted by the

Historians have judged the Qing dynasty's vulnerability and weakness to foreign imperialism in the 19th century to be based mainly on its maritime naval weakness although it achieved military success against Westerners on land. Historian Edward L. Dreyer stated, "China's nineteenth-century humiliations were strongly related to her weakness and failure at sea. At the start of the Opium War, China had no unified navy and no sense of how vulnerable she was to attack from the sea; British forces sailed and steamed wherever they wanted to go.... In the Arrow War (1856–60), the Chinese had no way to prevent the Anglo-French expedition of 1860 from sailing into the Gulf of Zhili and landing as near as possible to Beijing. Meanwhile, new but not exactly modern Chinese armies suppressed the midcentury rebellions, bluffed Russia into a peaceful settlement of disputed frontiers in Central Asia, and defeated the French forces on land in the Sino–French War (1884–85). But the defeat of the fleet, and the resulting threat to steamship traffic to Taiwan, forced China to conclude peace on unfavorable terms."^[31]

According to Henry Hugh Peter Deasy in 1901 on the people of Xinjiang: "insurrection is about the last course to which the natives would of their own accord resort. Any riots and disturbances which occur are got up by the officials for the purpose of inflicting injury on foreigners. The population have no fighting courage, no arms, no leaders, are totally incapable of combined action, and, so far as the government of their own country is concerned. may be regarded as of no account. They have been squeezed to the utmost, but would prefer to remain under the dominion of China. If they are questioned, they say 'The Chinese plunder us, but they do not drive and hustle us, and we can do as we please.' This opinion agrees with that of the Andijanis, or natives of Russian Turkestan, who assert that Russian rule is much disliked among them, owing to the harassing administration to which they are subjected."^[32]

1890s alliance

Russian Finance Minister

Russia concluded an alliance with China in 1896 by the Li–Lobanov Treaty, with China a junior partner and practically a protectorate.^[35] It led in 1898 to an occupation and administration by Russian personnel and police of the entire Liaodong Peninsula and to a fortification of the ice-free Port Arthur. Since Russia was receiving large-loans from France, Witte used some of the funds to establish the Russo-Chinese Bank, which provided 100 million rubles for China to fund the reparations that it owed to Japan. Along with the International Commercial Bank of St-Petersburg, it became the conduit through which Russian capital was funneled into East Asia. Furthermore, the Russo-Chinese Bank bankrolled the Russian government's policies towards Manchuria and Korea. That enormous leverage allowed Russia to make strategic leases of key military ports and defense stations.^[36] The Chinese government ceded its concession rights for building and owning the new Chinese Eastern Railway, which was to cross northern Manchuria from the west to the east, to link Siberia with Vladivostok, and strengthen the military capabilities of the Russian forces in the Far East greatly. It was built in 1898 to 1903 and operated by the Russo-Chinese Bank and allowed Russia to become economically dominant in Manchuria, which was still nominally controlled by Peking.^[37]

In 1899, the

Russo-Japanese War

Chinese Honghuzi bandits were nomads who came from China, roamed the area around Manchuria and the Russo-Chinese border, and raided Russian settlers in the Far East from 1870 to 1920.^[39]

Revolutions

Both countries saw their monarchies abolished during the 1910s, the Chinese Qing dynasty in 1912, following the

.

Soviet Union, Republic of China, People's Republic of China

Russian Civil War and Mongolia

The

Mongolia and Tuva became contested territories. After being occupied by Chinese General Xu Shuzheng in 1919 and then by the Russian White general turned independent warlord,

.

KMT, CCP, and the Chinese Civil War

Soviet Foreign Minister

Second Sino–Japanese War and World War II

In 1931, the

) losing over 35 million and the Soviet Union 27 million people.

Joint-victory over Imperial Japan

On August 8, 1945, three months after Nazi Germany surrendered, and on the week of the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9), the Soviet Union launched the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, a massive military operation mobilizing 1.5 million soldiers against one million Kwantung Army troops, the last remaining Japanese military presence. Soviet forces won a decisive victory while the Kwantung suffered massive casualties, with 700,000 having surrendered. The Soviet Union distributed some of the weapons of the captured Kwantung Army to the CCP, who would go on to battle the KMT in the Chinese Civil War.

Independence of Mongolia

The

was in exchange for the Soviets' failure to support the communists in China.

War of Liberation and the People's Republic of China

Between 1946 and 1950, the CCP was increasingly enjoying massive support from the Chinese people in the "War of Liberation" and effectively implemented a

.

In 1951, Chinese Muslim General

From camaraderie to the Sino–Soviet Split

After the PRC was proclaimed, the Soviet Union became its closest ally for several years. Soviet design, equipment, and skilled labour were sent out to help the

.

The split was ideological and forced communist parties around the world to take sides. Many of them split, and the pro-Soviet communists were battling the pro-Chinese communists for local control of global communis. The split quickly made a dead letter of the 1950 alliance between Moscow and Beijing, destroyed the socialist camp's unity, and affected the world balance of power. Internally, it encouraged Mao to plunge China into the

in August 1958 escalated the tensions. Moscow was cultivating India, both as a major purchaser of munitions and as a strategically critical ally. However China escalated its threats to the northern fringes of India, especially from Tibet, and was building a militarily significant road system that would reach disputed areas along the border. Moscow clearly favored India, and Beijing felt betrayed as a result.

By far, the major ideological issue was the Great Leap Forward, which represented the Chinese rejection of the Soviet form of economic development. The Soviets were deeply resentful, especially since they had spent heavily to supply China with cutting-edge technology, even including some nuclear tech. The Soviets withdrew their vital technicians and economic and military aid. Khrushchev was increasingly crude and intemperate in ridiculing China and Mao to both communist and noncommunist audiences. China responded through its official propaganda network of rejecting Moscow's claim to Lenin's heritage. Beijing insisted that it was the true inheritor of the great Leninist tradition.

At one major meeting of communist parties, Khrushchev personally attacked Mao as an ultraleftist and a left revisionist and compared him to Stalin for dangerous egotism. The conflict was now out of control and was increasingly fought out in 81 communist parties around the world. The final split came in July 1963, after 50,000 refugees escaped from

Increasingly, China began to consider the Soviet Union, which it viewed as

1972 Nixon visit to China

.

From 1965 to 1988, the Sino–Soviet border, including the

Post-Mao era and stabilizing relations

In September 1976, Mao died. A month later, the

.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

Unlike in the PRC, a much more extreme, highly -unregulated form of privatization occurred during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, which resulted in asset grabs by Russians in a highly unregulated fashion and in deep socio-economic inequalities in Russia and the collapse of the economy as well as various Russian institutions. Thus, after the Cold War, the PRC emerged in a far more favourable and stable financial position. The PRC is currently seeing the fastest rate of economic growth of any large economy, several percentage points higher than Russia, which has been growing at an annualized rate of some 5–6%. The economy of Russia in the early 2000s was largely driven by demand for export of natural resources to Europe and Asia, with a gradual move up the value-added chain as Russian aluminum and steel mills upgrade to international standards. China is the growth market, and with the ESPO pipeline, Russia will continue to diversify energy exports away from Europe and towards Asia.

China and the Russian Federation

China and Russia share a land border which was

During the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, China opposed Russia's infringement on Georgia's sovereignty.^[57]: 347 Citing principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and global order, China used its influence in the SCO to prevent the organization from supporting Russia.^[57]: 347

When China attempted to build closer relations with Russia in 2013, the Russian government initially had reservations.

Putin and Xi Jinping met on February 4, 2022, during the run up to the

In March 2022, Russia added Taiwan to a

In March 18, 2024, when Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted questions from Xinhua News Agency reporters at the campaign headquarters in the early morning of the 18th, he said that Russia-China relations will continue to deepen and develop, achieve new achievements, and benefit the people of both countries.^[62]

See also

• China–Russia border
• Chinese Eastern Railway
• Li–Lobanov Treaty of 1896 between Russia and China
• Kyakhta trade
• International relations (1814–1919)
• Ethnic Chinese in Russia
• Russians in China
• BRICS, for 21st century relations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa
• China and Russia: Four Centuries of Conflict and Concord (book)

Notes and References

Further reading

• Chen, Vincent. Sino–Russian relations in the seventeenth century (Springer, 2012)
• Cheng, Tianfang. A history of Sino–Russian relations (Public Affairs Press, 1957) online free
• Dallin, David. Soviet foreign policy after Stalin (1961) online
• Elleman, Bruce. Moscow and the Emergence of Communist Power in China, 1925–30: The Nanchang Uprising and the Birth of the Red Army (Routledge, 2009).
• Elleman, Bruce (2016). Diplomacy and Deception: Secret History of Sino–Soviet Diplomatic Relations, 1917-27. Taylor & Francis.
  ISBN 9781315293196
  .
• Fischer, Louis. Russia's road from peace to war: Soviet foreign relations, 1917–1941 (1969)
• Fletcher, Joseph. "Sino–Russian Relations, 1800–62." in Fairbank, John King, ed. The Cambridge History of China: Late Chʻing, 1800–1911, pt. 1. (1978)
• Floyd, David. Mao against Khrushchev: A Short History of the Sino–Soviet Conflict (1964) online Archived 2020-09-26 at the Wayback Machine
• Foust, Clifford M. Muscovite and Mandarin: Russia's Trade with China and Its Setting, 1727–1805 (1969) online
• Fravel, M. Taylor. Active Defense: China's Military Strategy since 1949 (Princeton Studies in International History and Politics) (2019).
• Friedman, Jeremy. Shadow Cold War: The Sino–Soviet Competition for the Third World (UNC Press Books, 2015).
• Garver, John W. Chinese-Soviet Relations, 1937–1945: The Diplomacy of Chinese Nationalism (Oxford University Press, 1988) online
• Heinzig, Dieter. The Soviet Union and Communist China 1945–1950: The Arduous Road to the Alliance (M.E. Sharpe, 2004).
• Hsu, Jing-Yun, and Jenn-Jaw Soong. "Development of China–Russia Relations (1949–2011) Limits, Opportunities, and Economic Ties." Chinese economy 47.3 (2014): 70–87. online Archived 2016-12-20 at the Wayback Machine
• Jersild, Austin. The Sino–Soviet Alliance: An International History (University of North Carolina Press, 2014) detailed reviews and discussions of this book by historians, June 2015; full text online Archived 2020-08-07 at the Wayback Machine
• Lukin, Alexander. The Bear Watches the Dragon: Russia's Perceptions of China and the Evolution of Russian-Chinese Relations Since the Eighteenth Century (2002) excerpt
• Lüthi, Lorenz M. The Sino–Soviet Split: Cold War in the Communist World (2008)
• McAleavy, Henry. "China and the Amur Provinces" History Today (1964) 14#6 pp. 381–390.
• Miller, Chris. We Shall Be Masters: Russian Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin (Harvard University Press, 2021) online book review
• Moore, Harriet L. Soviet Far Eastern Policy, 1931–1945 (Princeton UP, 1945). online
• Morse, Hosea Ballou. International Relations of the Chinese Empire: The Period of Conflict: 1834-1860. (1910) online
  • Morse, Hosea Ballou. International Relations of the Chinese Empire: The Period of Submission: 1861–1893. (1918) online
  • Morse, Hosea Ballou. International Relations of the Chinese Empire: The Period of Subjection: 1894–1911 (1918) online
• Morse, Hosea Ballou. The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire (1908) online
• Paine, S. C. M. Imperial Rivals: China, Russia, and Their Disputed Frontier (1996) online
• Pavlovsky, Michel N. Chinese-Russian Relations (Philosophical Library, 1949) online
• Quested, Rosemary K.I. Sino–Russian relations: a short history (Routledge, 2014)
• Radchenko, Sergey. Two Suns in Heaven: The Sino–Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962–1967 (2009).
• Robinson, Thomas W. "The Sino–Soviet border dispute: Background, development, and the March 1969 clashes." American Political Science Review 66.4 (1972): 1175–1202. online
• Ross, Robert S. China, the United States, and the Soviet Union: Tripolarity and Policy Making in the Cold War (1993) online
• Rozman, Gilbert. A Mirror for Socialism: Soviet Criticisms of China (1985),
• Rozman, Gilbert. The Sino–Russian Challenge to the World Order: National Identities, Bilateral Relations, and East versus West in the 2010s (2014) online review
• Rozman, Gilbert. The Chinese Debate about Soviet Socialism, 1978–1985 (Princeton UP, 1987).
• Schwartz, Harry. Tsars, mandarins, and commissars: a history of Chinese-Russian relations (1973)
• Shen, Zhihua. A Short History of Sino-Soviet Relations, 1917–1991 (Springer Singapore;Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)
• Shen, Zhihua and Yafeng Xia, "Hidden Currents during the Honeymoon: Mao, Khrushchev, and the 1957 Moscow Conference," Journal of Cold War Studies (2009) 11#4 pp74–117.
• Tang, James Tuck-Hong. Britain’s Encounter with Revolutionary China, 1949–54 (Springer, 2016).
• Urbansky, Sören. Beyond the Steppe Frontier: A History of the Sino–Russian Border (2020) a comprehensive history; excerpt
• Walker, Michael M. 1929 Sino–Soviet War: The War Nobody Knew (2017) online book review
• Westad, Odd Arne, ed. Brothers in Arms: The Rise and Fall of the Sino–Soviet Alliance (1998)
• Whiting, Allen S. Soviet policies in China, 1917–1924 (Stanford University Press, 1954)
• Yakhontoff, Victor A. Russia And The Soviet Union In The Far East (1932) online
• Zhang, Shu Guang, "The Sino–Soviet Alliance and the Cold War in Asia, 1954–1962", in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Vol 1 in Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad, eds. (2010), pp. 353–375

Primary sources

• Radchenko, Sergey, and David Wolff, "To the Summit via Proxy-Summits: New Evidence from Soviet and Chinese Archives on Mao’s Long March to Moscow, 1949," CWIHPB, no. 16 (Fall 2007—Winter 2008), 105–82.
• Westad, Odd Arne. "Fighting for Friendship: Mao, Stalin, and the Sino–Soviet Treaty of 1950," CWIHPB, nos. 8–9 (Winter 1996–97), 224–36
  • The numerous digital initiatives of CWIHP are online.