The relationship between Russia and China has long been described as “official hot and cold”, i.e. official warmth is superficial, but the people are distant. The picture shows Russia’s Red Square.
Recently, internal documents obtained by the Chinese Communist Party revealed that the Chinese authorities were threatened by Russia to throw Chinese fishermen into North Korea when dealing with a Sino-Russian diplomatic incident in 2019. Meanwhile, China and Russia are secretly fighting over the seizure of a Chinese fishing boat.
The particulars of the Qiong Lin Fishing 90008 incident
Recently, a number of “special” telegrams from the Consulate General of the Communist Party of China in Vladivostok in 2019 “about the incident of the fishing vessel “Qiong Lin Fishing 90008” were obtained.
On November 21, 2018, the Primorsky Krai Border Guard Service informed that a fishing vessel with the number “SUSAN204” was arrested for illegal fishing in the Russian exclusive economic zone with three Chinese citizens on board. After verification, the original vessel number is “Qiong Lin Fishing 90008”, registered in Hainan Province, the actual operator is Wang Haibo from Rongcheng City, Shandong Province, and the identity of the three Chinese crew members on board is true (two from Shandong and one from Jilin).
On May 9, 2019, according to the contents of the telegram from the Consulate General of the Communist Party of China in Vladivostok to Shandong Province, Hainan Province, Jilin Province, Heilongjiang Province, Guangxi and copied from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Maritime Police Bureau, the Ministry of Agriculture and rural Affairs and the Embassy in Russia, the incident has several special features:
The cable shows that the fishing vessel had been detained on November 21, 2018, and that the Chinese Communist Party had not picked up the Chinese crew until May 9, 2019.
The cable also quotes the Russian side as saying that this was an illegal fishing incident, but adds that the people on board said they were “waiting for an appeal.
Current affairs commentator Li Linyi said that the cable alone shows a number of peculiarities about the incident. It is also possible that there is a hidden agenda.
Russia threatens Chinese fishermen with being thrown into North Korea
On May 23 of that year, the Chinese Consulate General in Vladivostok sent another “special” telegram to China “regarding the latest situation of fishing vessel Qiong Lin Fishing No. 90008”.
The telegram said that on May 9, the Russian Primorsky Krai Border Guard Bureau verbally told the consulate that the Russian side was considering confiscating the fishing vessel “Qiong Lin Fishing 90008” and requested the consulate to send someone to pick up the seven Chinese crew members as soon as possible.
The Russian side said that since the boat sailed into Russian waters from North Korea, if the seven Chinese crew members do not leave the boat by then, the Russian side will ask the seven Chinese crew members to return to North Korea together with the rest of the North Korean crew members on the North Korean fishing boat.
China and Russia are fighting over the “Qiong Lin Fishing 90008” incident
On the 28th of that month, the Chinese Consulate General in Vladivostok sent another “special” telegram, revealing that China and Russia were in a “secret fight” over the fishing boat incident.
The telegram said that on the evening of May 23, Cao, who was in Russia to assist in the affairs of the fishing boat, called the consulate and said that the Russian side asked the seven Chinese crew members and the rest of the North Korean crew to leave the boat on the 24th and return to North Korea on the North Korean fishing boat instead. Cao asked the Chinese Consulate to assist in picking up the seven Chinese crew members.
On the morning of the 24th, the consulate contacted the Primorsky Krai Border Guard Bureau and asked the Russian side to allow embassy officials to pick up the crew members from the ship on the ground, as promised. The telegram said, “But the Russian side suddenly reversed itself and did not agree to the embassy sending officers to pick them up, falsely claiming that the seven Chinese crew members had already boarded a North Korean fishing boat and were about to leave Russia (the crew members were in fact still on their own boat).”
The telegram also claimed that the embassy “repeatedly worked” before the Russian side finally agreed to the Chinese Communist Party going to retrieve the crew.
China-Russia Relations “Hot for Officials, Cold for People”
Relations between China and Russia have long been described as “official hot and cold,” meaning that officials are superficially warm and people are distant.
Since 2012, China and Russia have held several joint military exercises every year.
On May 9, 2015, Xi Jinping attended Russia’s Red Square military parade to commemorate the 75th anniversary of victory in the Patriotic War.
Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in a military parade in Beijing on September 3, 2015.
In June 2019, Russia and China officially announced the establishment of a “new era of strategic partnership.
On October 22, 2020, as U.S.-China relations deteriorated, Putin also hinted that a military alliance between Russia and China was possible, but not necessary at this time.
On December 28, 2020, during a phone call with Putin, Xi Jinping said that Russian-Chinese relations “are not afraid of fire.
While Russia and China have frequent official interaction, the private sector is cold and distant.
Russian newspaper The Independent has reported that experts have stressed that Russia and China cooperate actively at the official level, but private sector interaction is weak. Yelena Savronova, a senior researcher at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, described Russian-Chinese relations as “hot at the top and cold at the bottom.
The New York Times reports that Chinese expansion around Lake Baikal has sparked deep resentment in recent years. With the influx of Chinese tourists and businesses, Russians are increasingly concerned about Chinese land grabbing and pollution of the lake. As a result, petitions, protests and lawsuits demanding the removal of the Chinese from Lake Baikal and the surrounding area are growing.
In 2019, the construction of a bottled water plant in Lake Baikal by Chinese businesses triggered a coalition of 1.1 million Russians to oppose it, eventually causing the Russian government to order the plant to stop.
In addition, Chinese companies are deforestation in Russia, dumping goods at low prices that endanger the Russian market, and other actions that have caused widespread discontent in Russian society.
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