3. Conclusion

3.1. Future of the Discourse in the Context of State’s Changing Political Order

Abstract

The BA thesis discusses the topic of Chinese immigration to the Russian Far East and attempts to see this issue from the perspectives of Russian civic and ethnic nationalisms, which are engaged in the discourse on how to perceive this process and what should be done in terms of policy-making. The BA thesis defines basic differences between civic and ethnic-based nationalism in Russia, explores negative perceptions which exist towards Chinese immigration, namely, security anxiety and racist sentiments and also provides the historical and geopolitical contexts which contributed to the emergence of these perceptions and attitudes. It then goes into discourse analysis and observes the way two nationalisms construct political reality and visions of Chinese immigration by analyzing empirical evidence, namely, statements and concepts which were framed by actual members of the two camps. Last, suggestions are provided on possible future development of the discourse, regarding likely shifts on the matter of adopting different models of cross-ethnic relationships in Russia.

1. Introduction

1.1. Improvement of Bilateral Sino-Russian relations

In the contemporary, the Sino-Russian relations are often viewed as warm and some even predict that the two states are going to further expand their ties. Bai Gao, a scholar from Duke University, suggests that China, being pressured by political and economic influence of the USA in the Pacific, which is exercised through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), needs to come up with an adequate response. According to Gao, “the strategy of building an “anyone but China club” in the Asian Pacific region may force China to move toward the direction of building its own regionalist programs which will create a parallel or competing order of international political economy”. In fact, one of the key elements of this order is alliance with Russia, which is “prescribed by realist strategy” (Gao, 2013; pp.1-3).

Such logic also makes sense for Russia as well – since the recent events in Crimea, Russia, being politically isolated from the West, has little choice left and will naturally improve its relations with China. According to Uwe Klussmann, “Moscow and Beijing are already negotiating behind the scenes and are planning to establish a new political and military alliance, which can completely change the balance of powers in the world” (2014).

The two countries also attempt to cooperate economically as both governments agreed on expanding bilateral trade to 100 billion dollars by 2015. Currently, however, Russia is a lesser partner which sells raw materials to China in exchange for machinery and finished goods. Nevertheless, the Russian government is hoping to use Chinese growth for bringing economic improvement to Russia’s territory (Trenin, 2012; p.33).

1.2. The Problem: Russian Anxiety About Chinese Immigration

Despite the fact that bilateral relations at this moment are obviously improving, this, however, has not always been the case: even though, parties are engaging into political and economic cooperation, certain forces in Russia have a deep anxiety about China and Chinese, primarily because of a security threat: densely populated China may overrun the bordering Russian region of the Far East through immigration, what, in turn may result in Russia losing the authority there. When one examines contemporary organization of political ideologies and beliefs in Russia, it can be noticed that the above mentioned security concerns are primarily expressed either by members of the Russian government or by right-wing nationalist groups. Right-wing beliefs have been gaining popularity in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union: during the 1990s, when the country went through economic chaos of “robber capitalism” and general turmoil, Russian society was divided and polarized as a consequence of these negative impacts. “Social mood became more and more conservative, the attitudes become colored by pessimism, social Darwinism, anticommunism, rejection of egalitarianism” (Parland, 2004; p.4). Hence, the prevalence of nationalism and racism among part of the society produces grounds for anti-immigration and anti-foreign attitudes.

Another camp, which is also troubled by the issue of Chinese immigration, is the Russian government, for which the potential hostility of China was always a strategic nightmare. Now Russia is also, for the first time in more than two centuries, facing China which is stronger than itself (Trenin, 2012; pp.7-9). In addition to that, Minakir points that prospect of large Chinese immigration into the Far East sows fears of eventual Chinese political occupation of the region among the population (n.d.; p.93).

Having these two camps in the discourse, the main purpose of the BA thesis is to compare the attitudes towards Chinese immigration into the Far East between the Russian government and nationalists and to understand the possible outcomes in the context of perception formation and policy shifts. In order to do this, the BA thesis will be using the theory of ethnic and civic nationalisms, which was introduced by Jurgen Habermas. It argues that there are two nationalisms: ethnic, which is characterized by a compulsory, ascriptive ethnic membership viewed as an inalienable property; and civic, where a freely chosen membership is guaranteed by subjective rights in a voluntary political community that grants its citizens the option of emigrating (Habermas, 1998). Hence, Russian right-wing groups represent the ethnic-based nationalism, while the government of Russia stands for the civic nationalism.