ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the evolution of China's thinking because it has had a greater impact on Russian policy than the other way around. Chinese analysts frame the seventy-year history of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the border areas as having had five stages with the latest stage placing all projects of border integration under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): border free trade zones, infrastructure construction along the border, and a going-out strategy of Chinese FDI. The years 2020–21 saw efforts at intensifying Northeast-Far East integration while dealing with problems such as center-local relations in both countries and Covid-19's impact on a cross-border economic downturn. Chinese center-local planning appears well coordinated although Heilongjiang is considered to be overly assertive in its approach to the Russian Far East, and at times has been reined in by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
