Handshake between two giants? Sino-Russian encounter through Chinese lens, 1991–2022

Abstract

This thesis examines how China perceived, managed and articulated its relationship with Russia from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 to the outbreak of the full-scale Russia–Ukraine war in 2022. It argues that China’s approach to Russia is best understood neither as a move towards formal alliance nor as a merely temporary alignment of convenience. Rather, Russia was reconstructed in Chinese official and academic discourse as a strategically necessary but carefully bounded partner: a historically complex neighbour, a source of cooperation in selected security and economic fields, and a major actor in China’s response to a changing international order. The thesis contributes to the contemporary history of China’s foreign relations, drawing on foreign policy analysis to connect historical experience, official discourse and academic interpretation.

The thesis develops this argument through three levels of analysis. First, it examines the historical background of Sino-Russian and Sino-Soviet relations, showing how memories of unequal treaties, socialist alliance, hierarchy, dependency, ideological rupture and border normalisation shaped later Chinese caution. Second, it analyses official attitudes under Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping, tracing a movement from rebuilding post-Cold War trust, to institutionalising cooperation across political, military, economic and cultural fields, and finally to upgrading the partnership under intensified international pressure. Third, it investigates Chinese academic and think-tank interpretations of Russia, arguing that scholars worked within politically defined boundaries to explain, refine and qualify China’s Russia policy, especially after the 2001 Treaty of Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation, the 2014 Ukraine crisis, the Belt and Road Initiative and the 2022 war.

Drawing on Chinese official documents, academic and think-tank publications, fieldwork in Sino-Russian border regions and semi-structured interviews with Chinese specialists in Russian studies, the thesis concludes that Sino-Russian strategic partnership has functioned both as a mechanism of cooperation and as a mechanism of constraint, enabling extensive coordination while preserving China’s autonomy and avoiding formal alliance obligations.

Date of Award	Dec 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Alexander Titov (Supervisor), Aglaia De Angeli (Supervisor) & Eric Morier-Genoud (Supervisor)