China-Russia Relations: Can Bamboo and Pine Trees Grow Together?

摘要

Sino-Russian relations have witnessed peaks, precipices, and valleys. They oscillated from communist alliance in the 1950s to a bitter ideological split and cross-border hostilities between the 1960s and 1980s to normal state-to-state relations in the 1990s. They avoided war but not profound disagreements. Whether Russia and China can give substance to their mutually stated strategic partnership is an open question. Both countries, led by a new generation of Westernized pragmatic leaders, now focus on domestic economic growth and political stability, and their relations in part emanate from these priorities. Although Moscow and Beijing strive to recover national unity as well as rebuild national power and international prestige through either reintegration of the near abroad or the reunification of the motherland, they seem to shy away from the more aggressive goals of liberal empire-building and restoration of the middle kingdom or more menacing designs of building a protectionist fortress Russia or fortress China. The strategic partnership is designed to lean on each other s shoulders in the international arena in order to avoid war and grow together in peace. They both support the often-stated principles of multipolarity, the United Nations (UN)-centered international order, strategic arms control, primacy of state sovereignty and noninterference in domestic affairs, especially in the Chechen and Taiwan issues. Since September 11, 2001, the original implicit anti-American flavor of the strategic partnership has been toned down. Now Moscow and Beijing are both part of the U.S.-led international coalition fighting against global terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism particularly in Central Asia. But beyond this, how many common political, military, national security, and economic interests do they really share in practice?