Russia and China

Russia and China have always had contact with each other. After the commies took over in China, they built close relations. However, after Stalin died, China didn't want to be subordinate and so around 1960, their relations began to sour. Khrushchev pulled back some of the Soviet support, and then Mao accused the Soviets of deliberate malicious intent. While some feel that this bickering was just to confuse the West, it is true that relations began to deteriorate.

Eventually, there were border clashes along the Ussuri river. Things seemed like they weren't going to improve until the 70's when Deng Xiaoping took power. Years later, Gorbachev visited Beijing and did not sanction China after the West did in the Tiananmen protests. In the 90's, leader Jiang Zemin referred to Russia as China's key ally. They opposed many US activities like the bombing of Iraq and the attacks in Yugoslavia.

And now we have Putin. Now with the West growing somewhat hesitant (but still economically close), China and Russia have increasingly cooperated on issues and affairs. After Russia's aggressive stance in Ukraine, the US and EU have more strained relations with Russia, which now seeks a new partner. Russia is changing gears and shifting to Asia, where it's building up it's Far East infrastructure and military presence (who knows what'll happen in North Korea in the coming years).

There are points of challenge. Central Asia, which has been under Russia's influence for centuries, is moving closer to China. Obviously, we have the BRI, but don't forget the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Chinese cybersecurity is a red flag to Russia, and to many other countries likewise, but it's not like Russia itself has the best cyber-security and telecommunications.... no, I'm not talking about Russia's involvement in US politics, but rather all of those viruses and bad stuff online that originate from Russia.

There are large cultural differences between China and Russia and people to people contacts, for example, in education and tourism are limited. There are far fewer Chinese students in Russia than in the EU, US or even Australia. Russian students only started to be interested in studying in China in the past decade. Both countries have pledged to raise the total number of their students in each other’s countries to 100,000 by 2020. Even then it will be still far less than the exchanges between Russia and the EU or between China and the EU.

There have been numerous meetings between Xi Jinping and Putin. One trip brought the "eastern route" gas deal between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which provides a 30-year, $400 billion deal for Russia to supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year from fields in eastern Siberia through a 4,000- kilometer pipeline. They met at the BRICS summit in July, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)in September, Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) in November, and so many more. And now, there is a project to build a high-speed train to connect Beijing and Moscow, which will pass through China, Kazakhstan, and Russia; yes, it is a 7,000 km long route.

Now let's talk about investing. Chines investors are growing stronger by the day, and Russia wants more Chinese people to invest in Russia. Russian Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukaev hopes for seven times more Chinese investment by 2020. China and Russia signed an agreement in October 2014 to let Russia’s central bank borrow 150 billion Chinese Yuan ($24.4 billion). Security and defense cooperation is important as China used numerous Soviet-era S-300 defense systems after the Europeans banned arms following the Tiananmen Square Massacre. China now wants to  buy Russian S-400 defense systems. The problem is that China is widely-known as being a copycat, so China might steal the designs. The Chinese government has announced intellectual property protection, but meh...that's kind of skeptical. Nonetheless, Russia sold six S-400 defense systems worth $3 billion. The reserve funds for BRICS countries are now worth $100 billion, among which China provides $41 billion and Russia provides $18 billion. In March of 2015, Russia became a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the same one that China want's to use to invest in Central Asia... I suppose Russia is trying to catch up.

http://www.eu-asiacentre.eu/documents/uploads/pub_179_the_new_russia-china_relations.pdf

http://en.people.cn/90001/90776/90883/6514660.html