China and Russian-Chinese relations in the mirror of Russian discourse
Using the approaches of critical geopolitics the authors compared Russian official political, media, academic and expert discourses on China - its internal and foreign policy, primarily Russian-Chinese relations, the role in the contemporary world, economic development and the military potential. They analyzed the impact of these discourses on Russian public opinion. More than 300 official documents - the speeches and the interviews of the Russian leadership, information on their meetings with Chinese leaders in 2012-2017 were collected. The screening of the scripts of the news programme “Vesti” at the federal TV channel “Russia-1” of the All-Russian State TV and Radio Company provided the material for an analysis of the media discourse. The academic (scientific) discourse was interpreted as a result of a study of a number of Russian monographs about China and Russian-Chinese relations published in 2015-2018. The screening of “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” as a federal daily “intellectual” newspaper paying much attention to foreign events formed a basis for an analysis of the expert discourse (about 1,800 publications). They were complemented with the materials of three other newspapers representing different parts of the political spectrum. An obvious gap between the official and the expert discourses on China is shown. Though its participants agreed that there was no alternative to the development of the partnership with the great eastern neighbour, many experts expressed their disappointment with the attitude of the Chinese side to economic cooperation with Russia and the fears of the growing asymmetry in the potential of two countries and the military power of China. The lack of trust at lower levels and the attempts to justify the failures of some Russian partners by the unwillingness of the Chinese side to reach compromises is a reason of this gap.