What a howler!
Posted on 03/10/2006 3:39:31 PM PST by gogoman
TALLINN, Estonia, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Moscow should act quickly and decisively to limit Chinese immigration into the Russian Far East lest the growing number of Chinese there "polarize" the country, weaken Russian national identity, and give Beijing a lever over Russia in the future, according to a Sakhalin native who works for an international consulting group.
In an article posted on the Kreml.org website this week, Yevgeniy Kolesnikov says that that the number of Chinese residents in the Russian Far East has jumped from 2,000 in 1989 to just under a million now, only one-quarter of whom are officially registered with the government.
Those numbers may seem relatively small relative to the population of the Russian Federation as a whole, the Royal Haskoning consultant says. However, they are quite large in comparison to the 4.9 million people living in the southern portion of the Russian Far East and even the 7.9 million who live in that region as a whole.
Moreover, Kolesnikov suggests the Chinese there are increasingly settling in for the long haul. Polls show that "half live with their families, more than half speak Russian, 70 percent of the youth plan to live in Russia, and their children are studying in Russian schools," even though the Chinese "do not mix with the local population."
Moreover, he continues, "the majority of residents of the Far East are negatively disposed to the Chinese immigration, not only because of their maintenance of a distinct community but also because as a result of their numbers, there has arisen a "de facto new national territorial formation ever less attractive for migrants belonging to European culture."
Moscow must take that into consideration, Kolesnikov argues because "the 'sinification' of the Far East and Siberia is a poor choice for Russia" as a whole. Not because there is any threat that Beijing will seize the region -- "we are all the same a powerful military state," he says -- but because of its social consequences.
Among these are an ever greater polarization between the western and eastern portions of the Russian Federation, an ever greater diversity of the country population, a weakening of Russian national identity and an opening to unwelcome influence "from the site of the Chinese superpower."
Some people in Moscow argue that Russia has no choice but to let the Chinese in because the Far East needs more workers. But Kolesnikov insists that the problem of the small population of the Far East is absurd." Indeed, he suggests, the absolute size of the population there is today "greater than is economically justified."
"The contemporary raw materials sector can develop on the basis of small human resources," he notes, pointing to the cases of Canada and Alaska to make his point. If industry develops, it will need more people, but it will need more people who are both highly skilled and willing to integrate into the Russian community.
In the medium term, Kolesnikov says, such workers will not come from China -- they simply won't integrate -- but rather should be drawn from rural regions and dying industries elsewhere in the Russian Federation or from immigrants and repatriates from culturally similar nations -- like Ukrainians -- in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
In the longer term, he argues, Moscow should adopt an immigration model like the one used in Canada, a set of policies intended to attract qualified and workers who are "similar in civilization" to the region.
In this situation, the question that Russian policy makers should be asking, Kolesnikov says, is not whether to "stop" the influx of Chinese into the Far East but rather "how to do this with minimum losses." In the short term, there will be some, he admits, but they will be "a small price to pay for the preservation of the well being of Russia."
China is eyeing that area since its were the bulk of Russia's oil and natural resources are located.
The trojan horse is already being inserted in. Well in this case, trojan dragon.
"a weakening of Russian national identity and an opening to unwelcome influence "from the site of the Chinese superpower."
Very bad influence, indeed.
They richly deserve one another - it is a marriage made in heaven. Using a quote from one Karl Marx, the "asiatic despotisms" naturally attract. Serves all of them right.
In the long term, how can a demographically dying Russia possibly resist the Chinese immivasion?
Funny how polarization can happen over there but according to many, somehow we're exempt here.
The Russians have only 140 million people. They will not be able to stop the Chinese from invading Siberia via immigration and these Chinese will have decent sized families, which is prohibited in China. Demography is destiny.
check out my post #7
Except the biggest difference of all, (if the article is to be taken at face value) is that the Chinese there are not assimilating, while all our immigrant groups are assimilating quite well. The rate of inter-marriage is relatively very high, and that is just one measure of assimilation.
Barring total nuclear war or a shift of the earth's axis, that will come to pass.
As Pat Buchanan said a few years back:
http://www.drudgereport.com/mattpjb.htm
• By 2050, 23 million Germans will have disappeared along with 16 million Italians and 30 million Russians.
• Russia will lose Siberia and the far east to China and be pushed out of the Caucuses and Central Asia, where Islamic populations are exploding while Russia’s is dying.
I loath the han chinese. The are racist vermin about as disgusting as radical islamist. They will start saying its their territory soon enough. Beware Russia you have been warned.These mongols only understand strength.
What a howler!
Too bad for the Russians that vodka isn't Viagra
And author Truman Capote was gay. Are we thus to assume that you are gay?
Anecdotal does not equate to representative.
I been to china 3 times and the mainland han chinese men were very rude and racist to me. The Han mainlander males(not all but most I met) act like china is the master race,that china is the middle kingdom, and that the rest of us are all barbarians. Im a white guy in the US,and their racism is light years behind our progression.I have been to India as well and was treated nicely and with dignity. China needs to progress much more in terms of human relations.
How do you expect them to pro create in such a horrid enviroment. C'mon its freaking cold in Siberia. So cold youll become an ice sicle if you stay out for too long.
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