No 2 (2023)

The article is devoted to Chinese scholars’ views on the nature, history and dynamics of the modern international order. The authors analyze international order definitions given by various representatives of China’s international relations theory. The evolution of the Chinese approach to the international order and the system of global governance, from the 1950s’ isolationism till the modern global collective goods creation is traced here. International order justness and rational nature are considered as its basic principles and norms. The authors underline the impact of the rise of China, China’s foreign policy mercantilism on the formation of Beijing’s views on the contemporary international order. The current stage of formulating the concept of international order, which began in 2012, is characterized by such features as an interest in the creation of multilateral institutions and the nature of complex state power parameters. Special attention is paid to the international order tectonic changes, associated with the beginning of large-scale conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Western sanctions, as well as the position of China. The authors note that systemic contradictions do not allow China and the United States to achieve their bilateral relations’ full normalization. China assumes an extremely negative attitude towards the U.S. of controlled chaos concept, one of the strongest features of which is sharp geopolitical pressure on Russia. By violating the principle of inviolability of property during the imposition of unilateral sanctions, Western countries send negative signals, to many nations, including China, which till the very recent times shared the basic principles of the liberal international order. The growing number of rogue states that are not subject to international law deepens the civilizational gap between the West and the rest of the world.

The growth dynamics of the Chinese economy and the factors of its growth in recent years (2017–2022) are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the role of foreign trade, the movement of cross-border capital in the economic development of the PRC, and the state of its debt position. A number of conclusions are made regarding the prospects for growth and evolution of China's economic development model.Over the past ten years, the third sphere (services) has become a leading in the production of China’s GDP, ahead of the second (industrial) sphere. The analysis of GDP structure on expenses shows that the economic growth of the PRC is primarily supported by the internal factors of consumer and investment demand. The net export of goods and services currently occupies a secondary position among growth factors. A comparison of China’s GDP dynamics and foreign trade shows the high stability of the Chinese economy to changes in trade volumes.It is noted that China's priority efforts are focused on the formation of a new model of economic development: innovative in nature, based on a capacious domestic market, closely interacting with the world. Actively used by China until recently, the export-oriented development model has long exhausted itself in many respects. The new innovative development model will differ from the development model of new industrial countries that have solved similar tasks of maintaining growth. First of all, in China’s huge domestic market and the need to use to all domestic and external growth factors. Such a development model is designed to ensure high quality growth and sustainable development. Innovation will replace export orientation and capital accumulation as a key driver of growth. This will make it possible to fully develop an intensive type of growth instead of an extensive one. The factors of domestic consumer and investment demand, as well as external export demand, will continue to play an important supporting role in ensuring China's economic growth.

The problem of water resources in international relations is one of the most discussed since the second half of the last century. Since the mid-1960s, water consumption in the world has more than doubled and continues to grow. This makes fresh water one of the most important factors influencing the international and domestic political situation.In the Greater Mekong subregion, this problem is already one of the main ones. The main reasons for this are rapid economic and demographic growth, as well as changing climatic conditions. The situation is complicated by the geopolitical significance of the region, which makes it a place of struggle for influence from global and regional players. The paper notes the role of the Mekong River in the economy of the countries of the subregion, because the contradictions between them are the main cause of international processes related to the river. The author also noted the influence on the situation from the leading world powers and the possibility of smoothing the problem from Russia.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Tsarist Russia's foreign policy in the Far East, particularly in China, became considerably more active. One of the main regions of China within the sphere of interest of the Russian Empire was the so-called «Three Eastern Provinces» (Manchuria), where the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) was laid and the Kwantung Province of the Russian Empire was established. In 1900, the Russian armed forces, led by Admiral E.I. Alexeyev, were forced to temporarily occupy the entire territory of Manchuria in order to suppress an uprising organized by followers of the anti-foreign Yihetuan movement, also known as the Boxer Rebellion. This included the then capital of one of the Three Eastern Provinces, Fengtian Province, the city of Mukden. The importance of Mukden as an administrative and business center and one of the largest railway stations on the CER line made the presence of an official representative of the Tsarist authorities in the city necessary. As the Boxer Rebellion was suppressed, a growing number of diverse firms and trading enterprises began to appear in the region, and foreign powers sought to expand their presence here. In 1901, Sergey Aleksandrovich Kolokolov (1868-1921), then secretary of the Russian consulate in Kashgar and graduate of the Faculty of Oriental Languages at St. Petersburg University, was appointed as diplomatic agent of the Russian Empire in Mukden. He served at this post in Mukden until the beginning of hostilities between Russia and Japan in 1904. S.A. Kolokolov was one of those diplomatic personnel in China at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries who, thanks to their personal professionalism and loyalty to their work, ensured the safety of Russian interests in the region. This article gives the first detailed look at key aspects of the Russian diplomatic agency in Mukden.

The 88th Independent Infantry Brigade in the Far East is the only unit in the history of the Communist Party of China and the history of the Chinese Communist Army that was reorganized into the Soviet Army. In the operation of the Soviet Army dispatching troops to the Northeast of China, the teaching brigade of Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army entered the Northeast as an advance force to perform some special tasks such as guidance, translation, reconnaissance, military representatives of the Soviet garrison and so on. In addition, in accordance with the instructions of the CPC Central Committee, the teaching brigade of Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army competed with the Kuomintang regime for the actual control of the Northeast under extremely perilous conditions, and quickly completed the «Three Constructions» (Party Construction, Army Construction, and Political Construction), which made an exceedingly special contribution to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War and the liberation of the Northeast by the CPC.

For centuries. attention to language problems in China has been paid at the highest level. In his speech at the 20th CPC Congress, Xi Jinping mentioned the promotion of the “all-national language and script”, i.e. Standard Mandarin and Chinese characters, as an important part of the language policy. Propaganda of traditional culture and preservation of ancient written texts is another important task in modern China. It is not by chance that soon after the 20th Congress, Xi Jinping visited Yinxu, a museum-park on the site of the second capital of the Shang-Yin dynasty, where the oldest jiaguwen character inscriptions had been discovered at the end of the 19th century. In the epoch of the revival of philological traditions, Xi Jinping’s signature in his own calligraphic version with the traditional character 習xí is widely used in Chinese propaganda. Soon after the 20th Congress, the importance of the popularization of the Chinese language and culture outside the country was discussed in Xi Jinping’s letter sent to a group of students from Saudi Arabia. As for the romanization system Hanyu Pinyin, introduced in the PRC in 1958, in the official documents it is positioned as an auxiliary device used in the primary education in China, when writing Chinese words in the texts in foreign languages and in the process of teaching Chinese to foreigners or not mentioned at all. The status of the Hanyu Pinyin system in modern China is incomparable with the status of the ancient Chinese characters.