2024-04-07 13:49:17
Chinese farmers have increased in the border region of Primorsk Krai, and their growing economic influence is overshadowing the local population, Japanese daily Nikkei reports.
This region, which in 1860 Qing Dynasty ceded to Russia, became the object of Chinese nationalist interests. Last year, the government said maps of the country should include Haishenwai, the Chinese name for Vladivostok, and the Chinese names of seven other areas in Russia’s far east.
Like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who insists that Ukraine has always been part of the Russian nation, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has placed the recovery of once-lost territories high on his agenda for the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
China has promised to include Taiwan in its composition someday. It also claims much of the South China Sea, where Beijing has been tussling with the Philippines and other neighbors over its “historical rights”.
A bleak economic outlook in Hegang, a former coal city in northeastern China, may soon lead to even more Chinese farmers leaving for Russia, Nikkei reported.
The “yellow peril” in the Russian Far East is not new. It has existed for decades, if not centuries, because of the huge population imbalance on both sides of the border,” Yun Sun, director of the Stimson Center’s China Program, explained to Newsweek.
“It is worrying that the influx of Chinese population will challenge Russian control. I don’t think the sovereignty issue is still negotiable, but the tricky question will be how to manage the Chinese farmers on the ground,” she added.
in 2021 a study published in The American Journal of Economics and Sociology found that in some cases the presence of Chinese farms and sales to Chinese-owned companies increased the incomes of local farmers.
The study also states that “the same factors, due to increased competition, increase land prices, reduce wages for Russian workers and the number of family members working on Russian farms, increase the number of full-time farm workers, decrease corn and wheat yields, and increase potato and rice yields.” .”
It was trade with China that most helped to support the Russian economy after the invasion of Ukraine began, when the West hit Moscow with sanctions. While this has allowed Russia to defy the most pessimistic forecasts for its economy, it has made the country more dependent on China’s yuan currency than ever before.
The first of 2023 In the first half of the year, Russia paid three-quarters of its trade turnover with China and one-quarter of its transactions with other countries in yuan, the Ministry of Economy of Russia reported.
March 29 In its annual report, Russia’s central bank said it has no good alternatives to the yuan when it comes to international reserves, according to a Bloomberg report.
“The rates of these currencies are highly volatile, there is little liquidity in the markets, and many of these countries have restrictions on the movement of capital that hinder their use,” the report said.
At the time, analyst Y. Sun said that using the yuan for transactions helped Russia and China soften the impact of sanctions and allowed the countries to test SWIFT’s alternative financial payment system.
Russia’s dependence on the yuan leaves the “junior partner” Putin in a difficult position should diplomatic tensions or trade disputes arise between the two countries, and is more dependent on the economic challenges facing the world’s second-largest economy.
Moscow’s dependence on Beijing also leaves it vulnerable to pressure from third countries. For example, Russian companies with business interests in China have reported payment disruptions after Washington imposed secondary sanctions targeting banks that help move banned goods to Russia.
2024-04-07 13:49:17