Will China Colonize and Incorporate Siberia?

 In June 2010, the Xinhua News Agency reported that China had leased a total of 426,600 hectares in  the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (District) – popularly known as Birobidzhan –  and the Khabarovsk region of Russia to Chinese farmers. This has caught Russian nationalists’ attention; they have called the arrival of waves of farmers the beginning of “the Chinese conquest” of Siberia.

A floating population of tens of thousands Chinese traders and seasonal workers continually moves back and forth across the border, one of the longest in the world. The immigrants settle not only in border areas but increasingly deeper into Russian territory, and some backlash is imminent. These developments raise several questions for Russia as to the migration’s impact, China’s long-term plans for Siberia, and potential Chinese dominance in the region. And yet, diplomatic relations between China and Russia have never been better. China and Russia enjoy mutual ​​cooperation in the spheres of defense, technology, energy and bilateral trade.

Why would China take any steps which would destroy such mutually rewarding relations?

China has allocated a definite place for Russia in its policies: it is primarily a source of raw materials and an outlet for goods not suitable for what they consider more discriminating markets. Siberia is particularly important due to the natural resources it contains: copper, zinc and other raw materials. The region is also well positioned to facilitate land-based transit of various resources from Africa and the Middle East that would otherwise have to cross pirate-infested waters. Russia has proved itself a stable and reliable trade partner, at least under the Putin and Medvedev’s presidencies. Aside from geography, the sheer number of Chinese willing to invest in the Russian economy makes their relationship a natural one. Russia has the resources and markets China needs and China the financial capital to infuse much-needed investments into the Russian economy. In January 2011, Sergei Luzyanin, deputy director of Moscow’s Far East Institute, said that Europe simply “cannot compete with China in terms of investments into the Russian economy.”
The pair maintains a business-like relationship and inconvenient issues such as human rights and media freedom, upon which western countries at times fixate, do not impinge on their bilateral affairs. The United States’ persistent attempts to indict China and Russia for their support of Iran’s nuclear program have also functioned to tighten their relations.

China and Russia enjoy mutual ​​cooperation in the spheres of defense, technology, energy and bilateral trade. Why then would China take any steps that would destroy such mutually rewarding relations?
International analysts have long hypothesized about the Russian Far East in the wake of increasing Chinese inflow. Some conjecture that Chinese economic control over these areas is not an “if” but a “when” issue. Others argue that increased Chinese activity in Siberia is the natural consequence of Sino-Russian cooperation and that the idea of Chinese expansionism is somewhat exaggerated. A third group maintains that while China has long-term goals to dominate the region, it has no precise plan and timetable.

Deceiving Demographics

The demographic problem is the greatest challenge that now faces Russia. The low birth rate paired with reduced life expectancy has the potential to seriously undermine the country’s future. In 2009 Russia recorded a positive demographic growth rate for the first time in years. But it remains to be seen whether this turnaround will be sustainable, or whether it’s merely the product of increased immigration of ethnic Russians from ex-Soviet republics.

Approximately six million people live in the entire Russian Far East (Eastern Siberia), while more than 90 million Chinese live in China’s northern provinces. Only about 40,000 to 75,000 of these live in the Russian Far East (although, since reliable statistics are difficult to come by, this number might actually be larger). Siberia seems an ideal place for China to relieve some of the population pressure and overcrowding. Moreover, most experts estimate that between 50 and 70 million Chinese peasants lack adequate agricultural lands of the type that can be found in Russia in former collective farms, where the Russians themselves are now reluctant to work.

A decade ago many Chinese workers came to Vladivostok and Khabarovsk to earn some extra money with the expectation to return home soon. Today this has changed. In 2006 a report in The Asia Times entitled “The Chinese Are Coming” stated that “now every second Chinese arrives in Russia” with no intention of going back to China, and that most of them should no longer be classified as “free migrants.”Many of them carry false documents and even fake Russian citizenships. China has deliberately promoted the migration of its citizens to the Russian Far East, fuelling concerns that by as soon as 2025, it will be possible to start talking about “China’s Siberia.”

Source : Here