Chinese people in Russia
Encyclopedia
Ethnic Chinese in Russia officially numbered 34,578 according to the 2002 census
. However, this figure is contested, with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission of the Republic of China
on Taiwan claiming 998,000 in 2004 and 2005, and Russian demographers generally accepting estimates in the 200,000–400,000 range as of 2004. Temporary migration and shuttle trade conducted by Chinese merchants are most prevalent in Russia's Far Eastern Federal District
, but most go back and forth across the border without settling down in Russia; the Chinese community in Moscow
has a higher proportion of long-term residents.
, which came to rule over China in the mid-17th century, traditionally regarded the territory of East Tartary or Outer Manchuria
—now known as the Russian Far East
—as its own. The Russian trans-Ural expansion into the area resulted in a low level of armed conflict during the 1670s and 1680s; in 1685 the two sides agreed to meet for boundary negotiations. The result was the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk
, under which the Qing relented from their earlier claims of territory all the way up to the Lena River
, in exchange for the destruction of Russian forts and settlements in the Amur River basin. However, under the 1860 Treaty of Peking, the Qing ceded even the far bank of the Amur River to Russia. They retained administrative rights over the residents of the Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilongjiang River
(though not sovereignty over the territory itself); however, Russian troops expelled Qing subjects from the territory during the Boxer Rebellion
.
Large-scale migration from Qing territories to lands actually under the control of the Russian Empire
did not begin until the late 19th century. From 1878 until the early 1880s, thousands of Hui Chinese escaped from Xinjiang
, Gansu
, and Ningxia
over the Tian Shan
Mountains to Central Asia
, fleeing persecution in the aftermath of the Hui Minorities' War; they became known as the Dungans.
Separately, other groups of Chinese-speaking migrants went to the Russian Far East
; the Russian Empire Census
of 1897 showed a total of 57,459 Chinese speakers (47,431 male and 10,028 female), of whom 42,823 (74.5%) lived in the Primorye region
alone.
Few of the Chinese in the Russian Empire's Far East would be able to become Russian subjects. It is reported that, at least during one period, only persons who had been married to a Russian subject and had become Christian would be eligible for naturalization. One of the most successful Chinese in late 19th century Russia, the prosperous Khabarovsk merchant Ji Fengtai (纪凤台), better known under the Russified name Nikolay Ivanovich Tifontai, had his first naturalization petition rejected by Governor A.N. Korff
in the late 1880s on the grounds of the applicant's still wearing a queue
; his second application was approved in 1894, despite the applicants Manchu hairstyle, as the authorities took into account the fact that his son, and the heir of his fortune, was born in Russia and was a baptized Christian. Later, Tifontai was to play an important part in Russia's economic expansion
into Manchuria.
During World War I
, several thousand of the Russian Empire's Chinese residents were brought to European Russia to work on the construction of fortifications. After the October Revolution
of 1917, a large number of ethnic Chinese participated in the Russian Civil War
as well.
, conducted in 1926, 100,000 respondents declared that they held Chinese nationality or that Chinese was their primary language; three-quarters of these were in the Russian Far East. Vladivostok was 22% Chinese, and even Moscow had a community of roughly 8,000 Chinese, largely of Shandong
origin, who ran laundries, bakeries, and knitwear shops, as well as engaging in streetside peddling. Outside of the cities, others engaged in mining and opium
cultivation. Under the New Economic Policy
, they spread out into other urban centres, including Novosibirsk
and Barnaul
. The wave of Chinese migration to the Soviet Union lasted as late as 1929; the border remained relatively porous even up until the mid-1930s.
Few Chinese women migrated to Russia; many Chinese men, even those who had left wives and children behind in China, married local women in the 1920s as a result, especially those women who had been widowed during the wars and upheavals of the previous decade. Their mixed race children tended to be given Russian forenames; some retained their fathers' Chinese surnames, while others took on Russian surnames, and a large proportion also invented new surnames using their father's entire family name and given name as the new surname.
In the late 1920s and the early 1930s, the Soviet Chinese people, like most sizable ethnic groups in the early USSR, had a writing system based on the Latin alphabet developed for them; it was used to publish a number of periodicals. A separate, different, Latin-based writing system was simultaneously developed for the Dungans
, who were already considered a separate ethnic group. This was accompanied by a broader campaign to raise literacy among Chinese workers, estimated at just one-third in 1923. By the 1930s, there were ten state elementary schools, one vocational secondary school, one college, and two evening schools using Chinese as their medium of instruction.
However, many Chinese migrant workers were repatriated to China in 1936. Those Chinese who remained in the Russian Far East, along with ethnic Koreans
, were deported to other areas of Russia
in 1937 for fear that their communities could be infiltrated by Japanese spies. Roughly 11,000 Chinese were arrested beginning that year, with 8,000 forced to resettle in the north of Russia.
Also starting from the time of Russia's 1917 October Revolution
and continuing up until the 1950s-1960s Sino-Soviet split
, many aspiring Chinese Communists went to study in Moscow, including Liu Shaoqi
, future President of the People's Republic of China
, and Chiang Ching-kuo
, the son of Chiang Kai-shek
. There was a great deal of factional infighting among them. From 1950 until 1965, roughly 9,000 Chinese students went to the Soviet Union for further studies; all but a few hundred eventually returned to China, though they often faced persecution from the Anti-Rightist Movement
as a result of their foreign connections.
The most recent wave of immigration traces its origin back to 1982, when Hu Yaobang
visited Harbin
and approved the resumption of cross-border trade; immigration remained sluggish until 1988, when China and the Soviet Union
signed a visa-free tourism agreement. However, the Russian government terminated the visa-free travel agreement just six years later.
, merely 34,500 residents of Russia (both Russian and foreign citizens) self-identified as ethnic Chinese, about half of them in Western Russia (mostly Moscow). In the opinion of many Russian demographers, the census number may be an undercount; Russian demographers consider the estimate of 200,000 to 400,000, or at the very most 500,000, as the most reliable. For example, Zhanna Zayonchkovskaya, the chief of the Population Migration Laboratory of the National Economic Forecasting Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences
, estimated in 2004 the total number of Chinese present in Russia at any given point (as resident or visitors) at about 400,000 persons, much smaller than ill-educated guess of 2 million that had been given by Izvestiya.
If popular media estimates such as the 2003 figure of 3.26 million were correct, Chinese would form Russia's fourth largest ethnic group after the Russians
(104.1 million), Tatars
(7.2 million), and Ukrainians
(5.1 million).
The two main Chinese communities of Russia are those in Moscow
and those in the Russian Far East. The community in Moscow was believed to have been the largest as of 2002, numbering 20,000 to 25,000 people; Chinese community leaders give even higher estimates in the 30,000 to 40,000 range. They come from most provinces of China. Moscow has the highest proportion of long-term residents (those living in Russia for more than three years), at 34%.
In the Russian Far East
, the major urban centres of Chinese settlement include Khabarovsk
, Vladivostok
, and Ussuriysk
, though in 2002, the total combined Chinese population in those three cities is less than that in Moscow. In Ussuriysk, a large proportion of the Chinese migrants working as traders are joseonjok (Chinese citizens of Korean descent); their total population there is estimated at perhaps two or three thousand people.
Most Chinese workers in the region come from the northeast of China, especially Heilongjiang
, where they form an important part of the province's strategy to gain access to natural resources in Russia to fuel their own economic development. Between 1988 and 2003, 133,000 contract workers from Heilongjiang went to work in Russia; most were employed in construction and agriculture. Though some immigrants come from Jilin
as well, the provincial government there is more interested in developing relations with Japan
and North
and South Korea
. Population pressure and overcrowding on the Chinese side of the border are one motivation for emigration, while the chance to earn money doing business in Russia is described as the major pull factor. Over one hundred million people live in the three provinces of Northeast China
, while across the border, the population of the 6.2 million square kilometer Far Eastern Federal District
declined from roughly nine million in 1991 to seven million in 2002.
Aside from resident contract workers, 1.1 million Chinese also went to the border areas of the Russian Far East on tourist visas from 1997 to 2002. Despite the perception that many remain illegally in Russia, since 1996, over 97% of Chinese arriving on tourist visas departed on time by the same border crossing through which they entered Russia, and many of the remaining 3% either departed by other border crossings, or were arrested and deported.
reached its peak and Beijing-Moscow negotiations about regularisation of the border
rolled on fruitlessly, Chinese civilians made frequent incursions into territory and especially waters controlled by the USSR. However, both sides' military forces refrained from the use of lethal force in asserting their border rights until a March 1969 incident in which both sides claim the other fired first. The fighting escalated into a Soviet attempt to drive the Chinese off Zhenbao Island
, a then-disputed island under de facto Chinese control. On the Chinese side, 51 People's Liberation Army
soldiers lost their lives; however, they retained control over the island. The Soviet government feared that the fighting marked a prelude to a large-scale Chinese incursion into the Russian Far East.
Additionally, the expanding Chinese presence in the area began to lead to yellow peril
-style fears of Chinese irredentism
by the Russians. Russian newspapers began to publish speculation that between two and five million Chinese migrants actually resided in the Russian Far East, and predicted that half of the population of Russia would be Chinese by 2050. Russians typically believe that Chinese come to Russia with the aim of permanent settlement, and even former president Vladimir Putin
was quoted as saying "If we do not take practical steps to advance the Far East soon, after a few decades, the Russian population will be speaking Chinese, Japanese, and Korean."
Some Russians perceive hostile intent in the Chinese practise of using different names for local cities, such as for Vladivostok
, and a widespread folk belief states that the Chinese migrants remember the exact locations of their ancestors' ginseng
patches, and seek to reclaim them. The xenophobia against Chinese and exaggerated concerns over the Chinese influx are described as less prevalent in the east, where most of the Chinese shuttle trade is actually occurring, than in European Russia
.
Russian Census (2002)
Russian Census of 2002 was the first census of the Russian Federation carried out on October 9 through October 16, 2002. It was carried out by the Russian Federal Service of State Statistics .-Resident population:...
. However, this figure is contested, with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission of the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
on Taiwan claiming 998,000 in 2004 and 2005, and Russian demographers generally accepting estimates in the 200,000–400,000 range as of 2004. Temporary migration and shuttle trade conducted by Chinese merchants are most prevalent in Russia's Far Eastern Federal District
Far Eastern Federal District
The Far Eastern Federal District is the largest of the eight federal districts of Russia, while being also the least populated, with a population of 6,291,900 . The Far Eastern Federal District was established in 2000 by then-President Vladimir Putin and is currently being governed by presidential...
, but most go back and forth across the border without settling down in Russia; the Chinese community in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
has a higher proportion of long-term residents.
Russian Empire
The Manchu Qing DynastyQing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
, which came to rule over China in the mid-17th century, traditionally regarded the territory of East Tartary or Outer Manchuria
Outer Manchuria
Outer Manchuria , is the territory ceded by China to Russia in the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 and the Treaty of Peking in 1860. . The northern part of the area was also in dispute between 1643 and 1689...
—now known as the Russian Far East
Russian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
—as its own. The Russian trans-Ural expansion into the area resulted in a low level of armed conflict during the 1670s and 1680s; in 1685 the two sides agreed to meet for boundary negotiations. The result was the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk
Treaty of Nerchinsk
The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 was the first treaty between Russia and China. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Mountains and kept the area between the Argun River and Lake Baikal. This border along the Argun River and Stanovoy Mountains lasted until...
, under which the Qing relented from their earlier claims of territory all the way up to the Lena River
Lena River
The Lena is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean . It is the 11th longest river in the world and has the 9th largest watershed...
, in exchange for the destruction of Russian forts and settlements in the Amur River basin. However, under the 1860 Treaty of Peking, the Qing ceded even the far bank of the Amur River to Russia. They retained administrative rights over the residents of the Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilongjiang River
Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilongjiang River
The Sixty-Four Villages East of the River were a group of Manchu-inhabited villages located on the left bank of the Amur River opposite to Heihe, and on the east bank of Zeya River opposite to Blagoveshchensk...
(though not sovereignty over the territory itself); however, Russian troops expelled Qing subjects from the territory during the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
.
Large-scale migration from Qing territories to lands actually under the control of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
did not begin until the late 19th century. From 1878 until the early 1880s, thousands of Hui Chinese escaped from Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
, Gansu
Gansu
' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...
, and Ningxia
Ningxia
Ningxia, formerly transliterated as Ningsia, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Located in Northwest China, on the Loess Plateau, the Yellow River flows through this vast area of land. The Great Wall of China runs along its northeastern boundary...
over the Tian Shan
Tian Shan
The Tian Shan , also spelled Tien Shan, is a large mountain system located in Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Victory Peak , ....
Mountains to Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
, fleeing persecution in the aftermath of the Hui Minorities' War; they became known as the Dungans.
Separately, other groups of Chinese-speaking migrants went to the Russian Far East
Russian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
; the Russian Empire Census
Russian Empire Census
The Russian Imperial Census of 1897 was the first and the only census carried out in the Russian Empire . It recorded demographic data as of ....
of 1897 showed a total of 57,459 Chinese speakers (47,431 male and 10,028 female), of whom 42,823 (74.5%) lived in the Primorye region
Primorsky Krai
Primorsky Krai , informally known as Primorye , is a federal subject of Russia . Primorsky means "maritime" in Russian, hence the region is sometimes referred to as Maritime Province or Maritime Territory. Its administrative center is in the city of Vladivostok...
alone.
Few of the Chinese in the Russian Empire's Far East would be able to become Russian subjects. It is reported that, at least during one period, only persons who had been married to a Russian subject and had become Christian would be eligible for naturalization. One of the most successful Chinese in late 19th century Russia, the prosperous Khabarovsk merchant Ji Fengtai (纪凤台), better known under the Russified name Nikolay Ivanovich Tifontai, had his first naturalization petition rejected by Governor A.N. Korff
Andrei Korf
Andrei Nikolaevich Korf was an Imperial Russian baron of Baltic German descent and an infantry general of the Imperial Russian Army. The names of the village of Korf and the Korfa Gulf commemorate him....
in the late 1880s on the grounds of the applicant's still wearing a queue
Queue (hairstyle)
The queue or cue is a hairstyle in which the hair is worn long and gathered up into a ponytail. It was worn traditionally by certain Native American groups and the Manchu of Manchuria.-Manchu Queue:...
; his second application was approved in 1894, despite the applicants Manchu hairstyle, as the authorities took into account the fact that his son, and the heir of his fortune, was born in Russia and was a baptized Christian. Later, Tifontai was to play an important part in Russia's economic expansion
Chinese Eastern Railway
The Chinese Eastern Railway or was a railway in northeastern China . It connected Chita and the Russian Far East. English-speakers have sometimes referred to this line as the Manchurian Railway...
into Manchuria.
During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, several thousand of the Russian Empire's Chinese residents were brought to European Russia to work on the construction of fortifications. After the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
of 1917, a large number of ethnic Chinese participated in the Russian Civil War
Chinese in the Russian Revolution and in the Russian Civil War
There are a number of reports about the involvement of Chinese detachments in the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War. Chinese served as bodyguards of Bolshevik functionaries, served in the Cheka, and even formed complete regiments of the Red Army...
as well.
Soviet Russia
In the First All-Union Census of the Soviet UnionFirst All-Union Census of the Soviet Union
The First All Union Census of the Soviet Union took place in December 1926. It was an important tool in the state-building of the USSR, provided the government with important ethnographic information, and helped in the transformation from Imperial Russian society to Soviet society...
, conducted in 1926, 100,000 respondents declared that they held Chinese nationality or that Chinese was their primary language; three-quarters of these were in the Russian Far East. Vladivostok was 22% Chinese, and even Moscow had a community of roughly 8,000 Chinese, largely of Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
origin, who ran laundries, bakeries, and knitwear shops, as well as engaging in streetside peddling. Outside of the cities, others engaged in mining and opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
cultivation. Under the New Economic Policy
New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy was an economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin, who called it state capitalism. Allowing some private ventures, the NEP allowed small animal businesses or smoke shops, for instance, to reopen for private profit while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade,...
, they spread out into other urban centres, including Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
and Barnaul
Barnaul
-Russian Empire:Barnaul was one of the earlier cities established in Siberia. Originally chosen for its proximity to the mineral-rich Altai Mountains and its location on a major river, the site was founded by the wealthy Demidov family in the 1730s. In addition to the copper which had originally...
. The wave of Chinese migration to the Soviet Union lasted as late as 1929; the border remained relatively porous even up until the mid-1930s.
Few Chinese women migrated to Russia; many Chinese men, even those who had left wives and children behind in China, married local women in the 1920s as a result, especially those women who had been widowed during the wars and upheavals of the previous decade. Their mixed race children tended to be given Russian forenames; some retained their fathers' Chinese surnames, while others took on Russian surnames, and a large proportion also invented new surnames using their father's entire family name and given name as the new surname.
In the late 1920s and the early 1930s, the Soviet Chinese people, like most sizable ethnic groups in the early USSR, had a writing system based on the Latin alphabet developed for them; it was used to publish a number of periodicals. A separate, different, Latin-based writing system was simultaneously developed for the Dungans
Dungan language
The Dungan language is a Sinitic language spoken by the Dungan of Central Asia, an ethnic group related to the Hui people of China.-History:...
, who were already considered a separate ethnic group. This was accompanied by a broader campaign to raise literacy among Chinese workers, estimated at just one-third in 1923. By the 1930s, there were ten state elementary schools, one vocational secondary school, one college, and two evening schools using Chinese as their medium of instruction.
However, many Chinese migrant workers were repatriated to China in 1936. Those Chinese who remained in the Russian Far East, along with ethnic Koreans
Koryo-saram
Koryo-saram is the name which ethnic Koreans in the post-Soviet states use to refer to themselves. Approximately 500,000 ethnic Koreans reside in the former Soviet Union, primarily in the now-independent states of Central Asia. There are also large Korean communities in southern Russia , the...
, were deported to other areas of Russia
Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union
Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union, originally conceived in 1926, initiated in 1930, and carried through in 1937, was the first mass transfer of an entire nationality based on their ethnicity to be committed by the Soviet Union...
in 1937 for fear that their communities could be infiltrated by Japanese spies. Roughly 11,000 Chinese were arrested beginning that year, with 8,000 forced to resettle in the north of Russia.
Also starting from the time of Russia's 1917 October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
and continuing up until the 1950s-1960s Sino-Soviet split
Sino-Soviet split
In political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
, many aspiring Chinese Communists went to study in Moscow, including Liu Shaoqi
Liu Shaoqi
Liu Shaoqi was a Chinese revolutionary, statesman, and theorist. He was Chairman of the People's Republic of China, China's head of state, from 27 April 1959 to 31 October 1968, during which he implemented policies of economic reconstruction in China...
, future President of the People's Republic of China
President of the People's Republic of China
The President of the People's Republic of China is a ceremonial office and a part of State organs under the National People's Congress and it is the head of state of the People's Republic of China . The office was created by the 1982 Constitution...
, and Chiang Ching-kuo
Chiang Ching-kuo
Chiang Ching-kuo , Kuomintang politician and leader, was the son of President Chiang Kai-shek and held numerous posts in the government of the Republic of China...
, the son of Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
. There was a great deal of factional infighting among them. From 1950 until 1965, roughly 9,000 Chinese students went to the Soviet Union for further studies; all but a few hundred eventually returned to China, though they often faced persecution from the Anti-Rightist Movement
Anti-Rightist Movement
The Anti-Rightist Movement of the People's Republic of China in the 1950s and early 1960s consisted of a series of campaigns to purge alleged "rightists" within the Communist Party of China and abroad...
as a result of their foreign connections.
The most recent wave of immigration traces its origin back to 1982, when Hu Yaobang
Hu Yaobang
Hu Yaobang was a leader of the People's Republic of China who served as both Chairman and Party General Secretary. Hu joined the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930s, and rose to prominence as a comrade of Deng Xiaoping...
visited Harbin
Harbin
Harbin ; Manchu language: , Harbin; Russian: Харби́н Kharbin ), is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
and approved the resumption of cross-border trade; immigration remained sluggish until 1988, when China and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
signed a visa-free tourism agreement. However, the Russian government terminated the visa-free travel agreement just six years later.
Demography and distribution
The total ethnic Chinese population in Russia is a somewhat controversial topic. In the 2002 CensusRussian Census (2002)
Russian Census of 2002 was the first census of the Russian Federation carried out on October 9 through October 16, 2002. It was carried out by the Russian Federal Service of State Statistics .-Resident population:...
, merely 34,500 residents of Russia (both Russian and foreign citizens) self-identified as ethnic Chinese, about half of them in Western Russia (mostly Moscow). In the opinion of many Russian demographers, the census number may be an undercount; Russian demographers consider the estimate of 200,000 to 400,000, or at the very most 500,000, as the most reliable. For example, Zhanna Zayonchkovskaya, the chief of the Population Migration Laboratory of the National Economic Forecasting Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
, estimated in 2004 the total number of Chinese present in Russia at any given point (as resident or visitors) at about 400,000 persons, much smaller than ill-educated guess of 2 million that had been given by Izvestiya.
If popular media estimates such as the 2003 figure of 3.26 million were correct, Chinese would form Russia's fourth largest ethnic group after the Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
(104.1 million), Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
(7.2 million), and Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
(5.1 million).
The two main Chinese communities of Russia are those in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and those in the Russian Far East. The community in Moscow was believed to have been the largest as of 2002, numbering 20,000 to 25,000 people; Chinese community leaders give even higher estimates in the 30,000 to 40,000 range. They come from most provinces of China. Moscow has the highest proportion of long-term residents (those living in Russia for more than three years), at 34%.
In the Russian Far East
Russian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
, the major urban centres of Chinese settlement include Khabarovsk
Khabarovsk
Khabarovsk is the largest city and the administrative center of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It is located some from the Chinese border. It is the second largest city in the Russian Far East, after Vladivostok. The city became the administrative center of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia...
, Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
, and Ussuriysk
Ussuriysk
Ussuriysk is a city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located in the fertile valley of the Razdolnaya River, north of Vladivostok and about from both the Chinese border and the Pacific Ocean. Population: -Medieval history:...
, though in 2002, the total combined Chinese population in those three cities is less than that in Moscow. In Ussuriysk, a large proportion of the Chinese migrants working as traders are joseonjok (Chinese citizens of Korean descent); their total population there is estimated at perhaps two or three thousand people.
Most Chinese workers in the region come from the northeast of China, especially Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang
For the river known in Mandarin as Heilong Jiang, see Amur River' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
, where they form an important part of the province's strategy to gain access to natural resources in Russia to fuel their own economic development. Between 1988 and 2003, 133,000 contract workers from Heilongjiang went to work in Russia; most were employed in construction and agriculture. Though some immigrants come from Jilin
Jilin
Jilin , is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west...
as well, the provincial government there is more interested in developing relations with Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and North
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
. Population pressure and overcrowding on the Chinese side of the border are one motivation for emigration, while the chance to earn money doing business in Russia is described as the major pull factor. Over one hundred million people live in the three provinces of Northeast China
Northeast China
Northeast China, historically known in English as Manchuria, is a geographical region of China, consisting of the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The region is sometimes called the Three Northeast Provinces...
, while across the border, the population of the 6.2 million square kilometer Far Eastern Federal District
Far Eastern Federal District
The Far Eastern Federal District is the largest of the eight federal districts of Russia, while being also the least populated, with a population of 6,291,900 . The Far Eastern Federal District was established in 2000 by then-President Vladimir Putin and is currently being governed by presidential...
declined from roughly nine million in 1991 to seven million in 2002.
Aside from resident contract workers, 1.1 million Chinese also went to the border areas of the Russian Far East on tourist visas from 1997 to 2002. Despite the perception that many remain illegally in Russia, since 1996, over 97% of Chinese arriving on tourist visas departed on time by the same border crossing through which they entered Russia, and many of the remaining 3% either departed by other border crossings, or were arrested and deported.
Allegations of irredentism
During the 1960s, when the Sino-Soviet splitSino-Soviet split
In political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
reached its peak and Beijing-Moscow negotiations about regularisation of the border
Sino-Soviet border conflict
The Sino–Soviet border conflict was a seven-month military conflict between the Soviet Union and China at the height of the Sino–Soviet split in 1969. The most serious of these border clashes occurred in March 1969 in the vicinity of Zhenbao Island on the Ussuri River, also known as Damanskii...
rolled on fruitlessly, Chinese civilians made frequent incursions into territory and especially waters controlled by the USSR. However, both sides' military forces refrained from the use of lethal force in asserting their border rights until a March 1969 incident in which both sides claim the other fired first. The fighting escalated into a Soviet attempt to drive the Chinese off Zhenbao Island
Zhenbao Island
Zhenbao Island or Damansky Island is a small island measuring . It is located on the Ussuri River on the border between Russia and the People's Republic of China ....
, a then-disputed island under de facto Chinese control. On the Chinese side, 51 People's Liberation Army
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 — celebrated annually as "PLA Day" — as the military arm of the Communist Party of China...
soldiers lost their lives; however, they retained control over the island. The Soviet government feared that the fighting marked a prelude to a large-scale Chinese incursion into the Russian Far East.
Additionally, the expanding Chinese presence in the area began to lead to yellow peril
Yellow Peril
Yellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...
-style fears of Chinese irredentism
Irredentism
Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...
by the Russians. Russian newspapers began to publish speculation that between two and five million Chinese migrants actually resided in the Russian Far East, and predicted that half of the population of Russia would be Chinese by 2050. Russians typically believe that Chinese come to Russia with the aim of permanent settlement, and even former president Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
was quoted as saying "If we do not take practical steps to advance the Far East soon, after a few decades, the Russian population will be speaking Chinese, Japanese, and Korean."
Some Russians perceive hostile intent in the Chinese practise of using different names for local cities, such as for Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
, and a widespread folk belief states that the Chinese migrants remember the exact locations of their ancestors' ginseng
Ginseng
Ginseng is any one of eleven species of slow-growing perennial plants with fleshy roots, belonging to the genus Panax of the family Araliaceae....
patches, and seek to reclaim them. The xenophobia against Chinese and exaggerated concerns over the Chinese influx are described as less prevalent in the east, where most of the Chinese shuttle trade is actually occurring, than in European Russia
European Russia
European Russia refers to the western areas of Russia that lie within Europe, comprising roughly 3,960,000 square kilometres , larger in area than India, and spanning across 40% of Europe. Its eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the south it is defined by the border with...
.
See also
- Japanese people in RussiaJapanese people in RussiaJapanese people in Russia form a small part of the worldwide community of Nikkeijin. They count various notable political figures among their number.-Early settlement:...
- North Koreans in RussiaNorth Koreans in RussiaNorth Koreans in Russia consist mainly of three groups: international students, guest workers, and defectors and refugees. A 2006 study by Kyung Hee University estimated their total population at roughly 10,000....
- Sakhalin KoreansSakhalin KoreansSakhalin Koreans are Russian citizens and residents of Korean descent living on Sakhalin Island, who trace their roots to the immigrants from the Gyeongsang and Jeolla provinces of Korea during the late 1930s and early 1940s, the latter half of the Japanese colonial era...
- Vietnamese people in RussiaVietnamese people in RussiaVietnamese people in Russia form the 72nd-largest ethnic minority community in Russia according to the 2002 census. With only 26,205 individuals, they are one of the smaller groups of overseas Vietnamese. However, unofficial estimates put their population as high as 100,000 to 150,000...
Sources
. This is a survey article, with links to original publications.. See section "Japanese Communities within the Russian Far East and Their Economic Activities".External links
- David BlairDavid BlairDavid Blair may refer to:*David Blair , British director*David Blair , British ballet dancer*David Blair , Irish Australian journalist and encyclopaedist...
, 16 Jul 2009, Why the restless Chinese are warming to Russia's frozen east, Telegraph UK