Cross-border cooperation of Russia and China: Chaotic prosperity and ordered degradation

Abstract

Throughout most of the history of the Russian state, the task of “exploration and and development” of the remote eastern territories, which remain on the country’s underdeveloped border periphery, continues to be relevant. One of the possible and quite effective tools for solving this problem in modern conditions is cross-border cooperation. Having conceptually taken shape within the framework of the developing European integration process, the idea and practice of cross-border cooperation was adopted by many states with common borders, even those not connected with each other by integration obligations. At the same time, it is recognized that neither the presence of a common border nor the willingness of the national governments of neighbour states to cooperate are a guarantee of the success of cross-border cooperation and, moreover, progress in the development of border areas. This article examines the evolution of cross-border cooperation in the Russian Far East, which is almost exclusively represented by Russian-Chinese cross-border cooperation. The recent history of cross-border cooperation on the Russian-Chinese border is in this sense a remarkably interesting case, the study of which makes it possible to better understand both the general laws of this kind of interaction and their specific features in the context of contemporary relations between Russia and China. The dominant trend of this cooperation can be characterized as a movement from chaotic prosperity to ordered degradation. Its determining factor was and remains the persistent desire of the Russian leadership to maintain tight control over remote territories, including through the centralization and concentration of all types of their interactions with neighbouring countries at the interstate level.