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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia | |
| Eye on Eurasia: Chinese, Police clash | |
| 2005-05-20 | |
| TARTU, Estonia, May 20 (UPI) -- A clash between Chinese workers and local police in the Siberian city of Irkutsk last week not only has created a diplomatic problem for Moscow and Beijing but also heightened the Russian fears that Chinese immigration into the Russian Federation represents a threat. Both Russian and Chinese media have given extensive and sometimes contradictory coverage to the May 11 events. What appears to have happened in Irkutsk is this. A local security guard asked a Chinese worker for his documents. Rather than present them, the Chinese fled on foot back to the dormitory he shared with other Chinese workers. The security guards pursued, but when they arrived in the area where the Chinese workers lived, they were pelted by bricks and stones. The guards then called for reinforcements, variously described as members of the local militia or even OMON special forces. Their arrival sparked further fighting between as many as 200 Chinese workers and the police. And in the melee, Chinese officials said, "dozens were injured, and some were hospitalized". Most Russian outlets suggested only 100 to 120 Chinese were involved, have played down the severity of injuries, and noted two "ringleaders" were arrested. The case sparked a diplomatic row between Beijing and Moscow. The Chinese consulate in Khabarovsk complained. The Chinese Foreign Ministry called in a Russian diplomat to lodge an official protest. And the Chinese embassy in Moscow made what the People's Daily called "solemn representations" to the Russian Foreign Ministry about the case. The Russian government announced Monday it was opening two preliminary criminal cases, one against the Chinese workers for failing to comply with official police requests and a second against the local police for possible abuse of power, news reports said. But while this exchange continued, the clash has taken on a life of its own in the Russian media, where various outlets both print and electronic have played up in often emotional and hyperbolic language what they describe as the Chinese threat to Russians and the Russian Federation. The exact number of ethnic Chinese in the Russian Federation is not known, but it has certainly grown dramatically over the past 15 years. According to Russian census data, the number of ethnic Chinese now living and working there increased from a few thousand in 1989 to more than 3.25 million now (cujad.com, May 16). But many Russians believe there are far more than that, and the absence of reliable data about legal and illegal immigration and about the number of Chinese who are residents as opposed to traders or temporary workers has allowed some politicians and commentators to make what appear to be wild projections. Some have suggested that Chinese immigration is growing so fast it will threaten Russian control of Siberia and the Far East. Others write the Chinese are about to form Chinatowns in major Russian cities, spreading crime and taking jobs from Russians. Still others argue - and they point to Moscow's response to Beijing on this case - that Chinese immigration will allow Beijing to have unacceptable influence on Russian affairs. And one Moscow newspaper, Vechernyaya Moskva, published an article Tuesday that intentionally or not will likely whip up more anti-Chinese feelings. After describing the Irkutsk events, the newspaper asked its readers to phone in to answer such questions as "Does Moscow need migrants?" and "Are they taking the work places of native Muscovites?"
Those individuals and groups who want to exploit this issue have a lot to work with. According to a countrywide poll conducted in April by VTsIOM, 58 percent of Russians are concerned about the impact on the Russian Federatoin of immigrants from abroad and especially those from China and Vietnam. In addition, there are growing number of groups that seek to play on such fears. Among the most prominent perhaps is the Russian Movement Against Illegal Immigration, which not only organizes protests against immigrants but maintains a Web site that details what it describes as the immigrant threat to Russia and Russians (dpni.org). But it is not just groups that may, in fact, prove to be only at the margins of Russian society who are now getting into the act. The official news agency ITAR-TASS, for example, featured a story immediately after the clash in Irkutsk that will do nothing to calm the situation in Russia. It reported that on May 13 the Russian Federation Embassy in Beijing had lodged its own protest, this time about the Chinese government's reported failure to free from sex slavery three Russian women being held a Tsinan hotel. Unfortunately, there are at least two reasons for thinking that the situation is likely to deteriorate further. On the one hand, as Russian government authorities told Vechernyaya Moskva, immigration from abroad is only going to increase in the coming years given Russia's own demographic problems. And on the other, as Russian human rights activists pointed out at a Moscow news conference, xenophobic attitudes are on the rise in Russian society, all too often because of the actions of officials and of groups and organizations with close ties to the state. (Paul Goble teaches at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia.) | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #4 I think the Russians need to be hooked up with Mexico, They have a surplus population they want to export. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O’ Doom 2005-05-20 19:17 |
| #3 In reality, they didn't fight 200 Chinese workers. They tried to rough up Jackie Chan and it just seemed like they were fighting 200 workers... |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-05-20 19:06 |
| #2 Paul Goble iirc is a former top State Dept official and old Russia hand. This is a major issue. Whether Russia contains 3m or 5m or more Chinese immigrants, nearly all are in the Russian Far East, which means that this is already a large % of the population there. And it's incresaing due not only to immigration but to the decline in Russia's native born population, which is proceeding at close to 1 million per year. Without question China will eventually turn the Russian Far East into a satellite. |
| Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-05-20 18:04 |
| #1 Russia is in a tough spot. Their territory east of the Urals is essentially indefensible from Chinese encroachment. For instance the Russian Far East has a population of only 6 or 7 million and falling fast, and maybe 3 million Chinese (legal and mostly illegal) starting at from almost zero in 1989. East and West Siberia together has only 25 million Russians. |
| Posted by: ed 2005-05-20 17:43 |