The Bear Watches the Dragon: Russia’s Perceptions of China and the Evolution of Russian-Chinese Relations Since the Eighteenth

China and Russia, two giants dominating the Eurasian landmass, share a history of understanding and misunderstanding whose nuances are not well appreciated by outsiders. In his interpretation of this relationship from the Russian point of view, Alexander Lukin shows how over the course of three centuries China has seemed alternately to threaten, mystify, imitate, mirror, and rival its northern neighbor. Lukin traces not only the changing dynamics of Russian-Chinese relations but the ways in which Russia’s images of China more profoundly reflected Russia’s self-perception and its perceptions of the West as well. As both Russia and China take distinctive approaches to political and economic development and integration in the twenty-first century global economy, this reinterpretation of their relationship is timely and valuable not only to historians but to all students of international affairs.

Alexander Lukin is director of the Institute for Political and Legal Studies and an associate professor of political science at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). He was educated at MGIMO and at Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate. Lukin previously worked at the Soviet Foreign Ministry, the Soviet Embassy to the People’s Republic of China, and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He is the author of Three Journeys through China (with A. Dikarev; Moscow, 1989) and The Political Culture of the Russian Democrats (Oxford University Press, 2000) as well as numerous articles on Russian and Chinese politics and Russian-Chinese relations.