China’s Trade With Europe Bypasses Russia in Both the North and the South

The Jamestown Foundation ^ | December 3, 2019 05:37 PM | Paul Goble

[Zhang Fei]

Russia has long counted on its geographic location between the Asia-Pacific region and Europe to cement its relationship with China. However, Beijing increasingly views Russia as merely a supplier of raw materials (Svobodnaya Pressa, April 27)—a view reinforced anew on Monday (December 2), by the official start of flows of natural gas from eastern Russian fields to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline (Meduza.io, December 2). And perhaps even more importantly, the Chinese now also generally dismiss Russia’s utility as a transportation link given systemic problems with Russian infrastructure that make using Russian railways or highways extremely inefficient (Profile.ru, November 3, 2015; Nezavisimaya Gazeta, April 25, 2016). The latter difficulties were highlighted late last month, when the first ever cross-border bridge between Russia and China was finally opened (Znak.com, November 29).

As a result, Chinese officials and businessmen have more and more focused on finding ways to transit Europe-bound goods around Russia, circumventing the world’s largest country along its north and, now, to the south. The former strategy has already attracted a great deal of international attention, with China’s drive to pursue dominance on the Northern Sea Route. These Chinese activities in the High North are disturbing for Moscow given that the Kremlin had long viewed that Arctic maritime corridor—more than any other—as uniquely under its own control (Regnum, December 1, 2019; see EDM, July 12, 2018, June 12, 2019, September 3, 2019).

But today, Moscow has yet another worry: China is also looking to the south. Officials in Austria, Azerbaijan and the Netherlands say that while Beijing has talked about using Russian routes to move goods (especially containerized cargo) between China and Europe, it now has demonstrated the capacity to do so via a corridor bypassing the Russian Federation to the south by using a route transiting Kazakhstan

[jarwulf]

China and Russia are natural rivals/enemies given geography and especially with Russia’s vast territory and population decline. Their alliance is just a current day political quirk thanks to the dominance of america.

[NorseViking]

The Chinese also bypass US while shipping goods to Europe.
Why is it news?
Shipping stuff by boat is cheaper than rail and trucking. That is that the Chinese do. They have sea ports and so does Europe.

[Zhang Fei]

[The Chinese also bypass US while shipping goods to Europe.
Why is it news?
Shipping stuff by boat is cheaper than rail and trucking. That is that the Chinese do.]

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The article says the Chinese are shipping goods to Europe by land. But they’re making a special point of skipping Russia. Hard to justify transiting Russia, given the eventual Chinese moves on Russia east of the Urals.

[Farcesensitive]

“China and Russia are natural rivals/enemies given geography and especially with Russia’s vast territory and population decline. Their alliance is just a current day political quirk thanks to the dominance of america.”

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Their alliance is weaker than it looks and won’t last.

[NorseViking]

2.8 million tonn of goods shipped to Europe from China in 2018. That’s 17% more than previous year.

[NorseViking]

I mean transported through Russia by Russian carriers.

[Zhang Fei]

[China and Russia are natural rivals/enemies given geography and especially with Russia’s vast territory and population decline. Their alliance is just a current day political quirk thanks to the dominance of america.]

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Both are empires with world-conquering aspirations. Not all at once, as Napoleon and Hitler attempted to do. Gradually, one chunk of territory at a time, like the empires with the greatest longevity. But in the end, there can be only one. In the interval, however, they can certainly be allies of convenience, and venture in opposite directions, much as Germany and Japan had a pro forma alliance (that went beyond words on the part of Germany only because Hitler had a bout of temporary insanity).

[Mi-kha-el]

Particularly, taking into account the fact that China still considers vast territories in Siberia and Russia Far East as belonging to China.