|
Dragon vs. the Bear- Chinese Presence Grows in Russian Far East
USSURIISK, Russia - In the mosquito-infested fields of Russia's Far East, Chinese pick tomatoes. In the markets, they sell cheap jeans and backpacks and fix shoes. At construction sites, they rebuild cities. As China and Russia embark on a new stage of cooperation by holding joint military exercises launched from the Pacific port of Vladivostok, the Chinese presence is growing in this hardscrabble region thousands of miles from Moscow. It's too early to talk of an imminent Chinese takeover, local experts say, despite such worries by some Russian politicians. Still, they acknowledge that China's hunger for resources and territory as its population and economy boom could eventually make the Far East an alluring target. "Russia has 30 to 40 years to become an equal partner with China in Asia. ... If Russia doesn't, then China could start to have territorial pretensions," said Mikhail Shinkovskiy, director of the Institute of International Relations and Social Technologies at Vladivostok State University of Economics and Science. Russia seized the Far East from China in the 1800s, back when Russian imperial ambitions were at their height and China was a weak country that could be pushed around. Now, the tables are turned. China's military is seeking to broaden its influence while Russian forces deteriorate to a shadow of their former Soviet might. After years of hostility and a 1969 border war between China and the Soviet Union, Beijing and Moscow are now "strategic partners" who last year signed a treaty resolving disputes about how to draw their 2,700-mile-long frontier. China is keen to buy Russian weapons to help bolster its arsenal, and this week's exercises serve to showcase key items such as Russia's strategic bombers, which can carry nuclear weapons. In launching the exercises last week, top generals from both countries said the joint military drills were just the latest step in cooperation that extends across many spheres â and is most evident here in the Far East. Sergei Sim, an independent journalist in Vladivostok who has specialized in interethnic issues, said the Chinese aren't seeking conflict and have a strong lobby in the local government. So far, their main goal appears to be in business. "Economically, they've already taken over," he said. Some 50,000 Chinese work legally in Russia's Primoriye region, along the Pacific coast, but their actual number is believed to be twice that, Shinkovskiy said. They earn an average of about $100 a month, half the regular Russian salary but far more than what they could get back home. At the Ussuriisk bazaar, the region's largest, Russian and Chinese flags fly over the entrance and merchants wear name tags printed in both languages. Cui Xian, or "Igor" as he's known here, waits for customers at an auto parts stall. The 20-year-old ethnic Korean came to Russia four years ago from China's Jilin province to study but wasn't granted a student visa. Eventually he managed to get a work visa and joined his parents, who immigrated here in 1996. "I live better here, it's a good life," Cui said in Russian, adding that in China it's difficult to find work with the competition and bribes necessary to get jobs. The Chinese trade also provides work for Russians such as Svetlana Kamogurtseva, 30, who helps negotiate sales of purses and backpacks for her Chinese boss from a storage container turned market stall. Unable to find work in her nearby hometown, she came to the bazaar 3 1/2 years ago. She makes $5.25 a day. The bazaar provides work for those who don't have the residence permits required for most jobs, Kamogurtseva said. "If there were other jobs we would do them, but there are no other opportunities." Still, relations between Russians and Chinese in the Far East are sometimes testy, with Russians exhibiting some dismay over having to serve their onetime poorer neighbors from the south. "All Chinese are liars," pronounced Konstantin Drassav, a Chinese-speaking tour guide in the regional capital Vladivostok. China has yet to make inroads here on a higher commercial level: Billboards hawk South Korean mobile phones and TVs, while the roads are filled with right-hand-drive Japanese cars. In Vladivostok, Chinese tour groups roam dirty streets looking to buy Russian alcohol and chocolate and see the few sights this garrison city has to offer, such as a World War II submarine turned into a museum. Other attractions include numerous casinos where Chinese can indulge in gambling, which is banned in China. Prostitution is also widespread, fueling sex tourism. Drassav said every tour group that comes here asserts that the Far East should be assimilated back into China. "All tourists say this territory was stolen from China," h Posted by: sea cruise 2005-08-25 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=127681 |