ABSTRACT

This chapter presents an overview of the Russia's Taiwan policy in different eras. It elaborates the importance of Russia to Beijing's Taiwan policy. Russian policy toward Taiwan can be traced back to the late seventeenth century, after Imperial Russia came into contact with China under Manchu rule. The Soviet Union paid little attention to Taiwan, which was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945. The Sino-Soviet split and the Sino-American rapprochement created some incentives for Russia to improve relations with Taiwan. China's voracious demand for raw materials makes Russia even more important to Beijing's Taiwan policy. China was the biggest customer of the Russian military industry in the 1990s, and Russia helped China improve its missile technology. China is buying or building advanced Russian surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), such as the long-range SA-10 and the SA-7, the anti-aircraft missile. Finally, the chapter examines Russia's three major options in a cross-strait conflict, namely siding with Taiwan, siding with China, and benign neutrality.