Lonely to be Russian out in Siberia
-----------------------------------
¶11. (C) There is a longstanding popular fear in Russia that
the Chinese are in the process of taking over the Russian Far
East (RFE). These concerns are spurred by the ever-declining
Russian population in Siberia and the RFE, the product of low
birthrates, early deaths, and out-migration. Not to worry,
said Konstantin Vnukov, Director of the MFA's First Asia
Department, who claimed that there were only 35,000 Chinese
residents in Russia. Even a generous estimate of 200,000 did
not create "demographic pressure." Per Vnukov, a recent poll
in major Chinese cities showed that only 1.7 percent of
respondents would be willing to consider Russia their future
workplace. Gui Congyu of the Chinese Embassy scoffed at
Russian fears of waves of Chinese swamping the Russian
population. "Who, among us Chinese, would want to live here?"
he asked.
MOSCOW 00001292 003 OF 003
¶12. (C) Popular impressions are little affected by such
arguments. Stories in the press speak of Chinese firms
buying vast tracts in Siberia to exploit for natural
resources and to establish Chinese settlements. Among many
examples, the January 11 edition of liberal newspaper Novaya
Gazeta argued that "China's annexation of the Russian Far
East has effectively started." The newspaper compared
Chinese inroads to the expansion of white Americans into the
American West: "the Indians watched new towns being built,
with alien laws and alien settlers, but they did not
understand how extensive and irreversible the process was."