Chinese expansion

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

How the Chinese seize Russian lands.

The National Unity Day holiday is a good reason to think about how united Russia is today. What threatens the country's integrity, why land trade is becoming a common thing, who has laid eyes on our natural attractions and whether we should be afraid of a massive Chinese invasion - in the author's column of the expert of the Regional Information and Analytical Center STI, political observer Galina Solonina.

Recently, the federal media published news: a memorandum of cooperation was signed between one Irkutsk travel company and several Chinese ones on the creation of a world-class tourism cluster on Lake Baikal. The announced investment volume is $ 11 billion. And if the news was greeted with optimism in the country as a whole, in the Irkutsk region itself it rather caused a wave of bewilderment and apprehension.

The fact is that the region (like other eastern lands of Russia) has already faced the "Chinese question". We do not yet know any examples of bona fide investments from the business community of this friendly state.

Currently, Chinese business operates in several sectors of the Irkutsk region's economy. This is, firstly, the forestry industry: the vast majority of illegal sawmills are owned by Chinese citizens, and illegal shift workers from the PRC work there. Timber, slightly processed to such a state that allows it to be classified as "lumber", goes to China in endless echelons without customs. This is problem.

For example, the Irkutsk region (and the "Chinese investors" working in it) account for more than 50% of all illegal logging in Russia. There is no tax return, but there are forest fires (both a cause and a consequence of the activities of black loggers), problems with the shallowing of the Baikal drainage basin, etc.

The second point of application of Chinese business is agriculture. Where the illegally installed greenhouses of Chinese agricultural technicians were located, now nothing will grow for many decades - the land has been poisoned with chemicals. It is better not to talk about the quality of the product, this is a sore subject for many residents of Siberian regions.

The third area of Chinese business is tourism. The Chinese illegally create closed-type companies: they themselves bring tourists, serve themselves - they are accommodated in hotels owned by the Chinese, they are fed in their own restaurants, they themselves organize an "excursion", shamelessly misinterpreting Russian history, information about cultural and natural objects of display. At the same time, the money again practically does not reach the budget of the Russian regions, and the anthropogenic load reaches …

In the Irkutsk region, settlements have already appeared, where power actually belongs to Chinese entrepreneurs.

So, there is a village of Shamanka on the Irkut River, there is no land road to it, you need to cross the river by ferry or by a pedestrian bridge. The ferry belongs to the local timber industry enterprise, the timber industry enterprise belongs to the Chinese.

Since this year, local residents are prohibited from traveling by ferry - only timber trucks (belonging to the timber industry enterprise) and light vehicles can use it - for a fee of 50 rubles per car one way.

The local population already feels a little uncomfortable, as if they had stayed too long in the house sold to the new owners.

Unfortunately, there are many such examples. Yes, there are people in Irkutsk who will say: our tourist business does not know how to work, everything is expensive and uncomfortable on Lake Baikal, so let the Chinese come and do it nicely and cheaply, like in China.

But today we will give up tourism, forestry, agriculture. Tomorrow - the earth and the bowels. Then - move out?

We are celebrating National Unity Day. Minin, Pozharsky, the people's militia - this is what we ourselves put on the goddess of the Russian ideology of the XXI century. In 1612 it somehow carried through, the state remained, although it was bursting at all the seams. But maybe we will take this as a lesson in history, and not as a historical tradition, and we will not rely on chance?

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Reference:

In China, millions of tons of nitrogen fertilizers are “poured” onto fields. Every year China loses 5-7% of fertile land. According to experts, in 10-15 years there will be no fertile land in China.