Abstract
The Russian-Chinese relationship is complex to be sure. It is one with a long and sometimes common history of shared interests. In 2009 these two countries celebrated 60 years of diplomatic relations that spanned the Cold War, the emergence of China as an economic powerhouse, and the demise of the Soviet Union. The relationship has survived the important transition of power from Putin to Medvedev, the closing of an important market in Moscow for Chinese merchants, which caused consternation in Beijing, the 2009 Russian navy sinking a Chinese vessel in Russian waters, and the importance both Beijing and Moscow individually attach to their bilateral relations with Washington.
However, when it comes to Sino-Russian bilateral energy relations, complexities and contradictions in this association are magnified beyond the conventional. On the face of it, these countries are natural energy partners. Russia is one of the world’s largest energy producers: on any given day it holds or has held the post-position as the world’s largest producer of oil and is the world’s largest producer of natural gas. China, which has evolved into the world’s factory, exhibits an insatiable appetite for energy resources and power as it strives to build its economy and satiate its population with electricity and propulsion in an attempt to stave-off a major shift in its political system through ever-increasing prosperity. This relationship has been characterized by Anders Aslund of the Peterson Institute as “having an enormous complementarity between Russia, which has commodities, and China, which has cheap labor and manufacturing.”  In spite of recent advancements in cooperative energy engagement, and despite public overtures by the leadership of both countries to the importance and vitality of deepening engagement where both energy and power are concerned, the pace of progress has been slow and encumbered by mutual mistrust and differing policy agendas. The Sino-Russian ‘strategic relationship’ may not be all that it is portrayed to be.
Read the article here.