In early March 2023, at a meeting in Harbin, Chinese officials instructed Beijing to build a railway across northern China to the vast and wealthy Russian Republic of Sakha, which dominates the Far East but is quite remote from the border with China. The road will be built on the basis of concessions that will give China long-term access to the region’s natural resources.
According to the OilPrice resource, during the official meeting, neither the exact route of the infrastructure megaproject nor the timetable for the construction of this line was announced, since both parties pledged to establish both in the near future. And, perhaps for this reason, this event has so far received little attention from the Russian media; but it is a potentially transformative event for the region, China and the Russian Federation. Plus, it’s in political terms, and here’s why.
In the short term, this new Chinese initiative will benefit Moscow, and in particular Russian companies and officials who control the natural resources of the Sakha Republic, by boosting exports to China.
But in the long run, such a route would specifically tie Sakha and the Russian Far East more closely to Beijing than to distant Moscow, and give many local Russians a sense that China was becoming the preeminent power in the region. And that could possibly be the case even if China does nothing to change the political borders between itself and the Russian Federation. So far, Moscow does not see how China is using this approach for a partner.
This state of affairs gives Beijing all the advantages it wants, freeing it from having to bear the social security costs of absorbing additional territory and population.
OilPrice analysts believe that even with Chinese resources, building a railway from China to the resource-rich Sakha Republic to subjugate part of the Russian Federation will not be easy or straightforward. will not happen overnight. Most of the route will pass through areas without roads or settlements. And it will force the Chinese to bring in materials and labor from outside, raising the specter of Chinese “guest workers” on Russian soil far from the Chinese border, where they have become commonplace. At best, construction will take several years.
Photos used:
