Beijing Rapidly Expanding Its Influence across Russian Far East -- with Putin’s Help, Nemets Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Dec. 8 – Beijing has been rapidly expanding its influence in the economy and government offices of the Russian Far East, often with Vladimir Putin’s help because the defeats he has suffered elsewhere mean that he has no choice but to give in to what the Chinese want, according to Aleksandr Nemets.
    The US-based Russian analyst says that this trend began more than a decade ago but is accelerating because of Putin’s problems in Ukraine, Syria and with the Russian economy (m.kasparov.org/material.php?id=674D9776C7941&section_id=444F8A447242B&subject_id=230 and kasparov.ru/material.php?id=675449E4EA866).
    Not only are there more than three million ethnic Chinese in the Russian Far East, far more than the 40,000 registered residents the Russian authorities admit to, Nemets begins; but China now makes no secret of its aspirations for control of the region and has already achieved great success in dominating the economy and even regional governments.
    And this has happened with Putin’s help because he needs China given his weakened position and therefore is deferring to Beijing on issues large and small in the Far East, including but not limited to accepting border changes in China’s favor, expanding the ability of Chinese firms to rent land, and extending extraterritorial rights to Chinese operating in that region.
    Officials in Russian regions, whatever they may feel personally, take their lead from the Kremlin, and as a result, China is finding it easier and easier to rent more land for longer and longer terms and to act as a neo-colonial power, confident that no one locally or in Moscow will show any resistance.
    Nemets sees Moscow’s willingness to extend virtual extraterritorial status to the Chinese working and living in the region as the most serious development because it gives both the Chinese and the local Russians the sense that the Chinese are already the more important of the two, despite everything Putin says about Russians and Ukrainians elsewhere.