Distant Neighbors

There is a great deal of speculation about the relationship between China and Russia. While many observers fear the formation of an authoritarian alliance between these two great powers, the geopolitical interests of Beijing and Moscow are often at odds with each other. And while Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping call themselves “good friends”, the balance of power between the two countries remains a subject of conjecture.

In order to gain a clear understanding of Sino–Russian relations in the twenty-first century, we need to first understand the long history behind them. In this book, historians Sören Urbansky and Martin Wagner offer an introduction to the 400-year history of these two neighbours: from their first official contact in 1618 and the falling-out of the two communist regimes under Khrushchev and Mao all the way through to China’s response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Urbansky and Wagner are both internationally renowned experts in the field, and narrate the eventful history of the complex web of connections that bind these two countries. As expansionist empires, socialist superpowers, and authoritarian regimes, they have much in common, and have both competed and cooperated with one another. China and Russia are unable to avoid each other, but they by no means always march to the same beat.

»With Distant Neighbors: A Concise History of Sino-Russian Relations, the authors have managed to pull off a remarkable balancing act: their book is source-based, well-researched, and analytically precise – and at the same time written with a narrative lightness that makes it accessible to a broad readership. It shows how history can sharpen our understanding of the present without determining it - and invites us to take a sharper look at the global order of the future.« Stefan Messingschlager, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»An outstanding overview of the eventful history of Sino-Russian relations.« Ulrich M. Schmid, Neue Zürcher Zeitung