ABSTRACT
After quarrels and enmity, after an ideological divorce and tentative advances, China and Russia have so far settled in a marriage of convenience. Their relationship is not built on mutual sympathy or trust, but rather on taking advantage of opportunities and strategically using the other in order to accomplish national goals. This bold pragmatism cannot, however, cover the differences and mutual distrust that are deeply rooted in the respective collective memory and historical development. Thus it is not surprising that, for instance, both countries plan a Sino-Russian rating agency (Die Zeit 2014) and sealed the recent natural gasoline deal (Hill 2014), yet although Russia sells high-tech weapons to India, it refuses to do so to China.
