2. The foundation of Sino-Russian partnership of economic coordination

To begin with, a major part of the foundation is diplomatic coordination. Since the primary cause of establishing the Sino-Russian partnership of strategic coordination lies in the changes of international security environment and the pressure from hegemonism, it is hence natural that the most substantial part of this strategic coordination is the cooperation over international affairs. At least it was so by then. The Sino-Russian diplomatic collaboration has been unfolded in global, regional, bilateral and multilateral aspects. The most important cooperation is the one from the global perspective, including the countermeasures on specific issues against the US – opposing the expansion of the US-led military and political alliance system, or its enhanced military deployment in China and Russia's neighboring countries; being against the US for starting the Kosovo War; objecting the US deployment of the TMD system and the deployment of weapons in outer space; opposing the unipolar hegemony of the US; advocating the establishment of a new international political and economic order. The diplomatic coordination on these issues is extremely vital because it is related to the international security environment as well as the global status of the two countries. It needs to be emphasized that both China and Russia have so far kept themselves away from forming an anti-US alliance in the general sense. Even in terms of the diplomatic cooperation on the issues described above, their actions have been limited to diplomatic statements. Their diplomatic cooperation at the regional level mainly consists of establishing and developing the SCO in Central Asia and setting up an open and equal regional security framework in the Asia-Pacific region. Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region are the neighboring areas of China and Russia. Promoting peace and development in these regions is favorable for both nations and other related countries. From the scope of bilateral relations, China and Russia firmly support each other safeguarding their national sovereignty and territorial integrity. The two countries have also cooperated on many international puzzles such as North Korean and Iranian nuclear issues and the crisis in Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine. Moreover, China and Russia are developing diplomatic coordination and collaboration in multilateral mechanisms, such as the UN, the BRICS group, G20, China-Russia-India mechanism, APEC, etc. Although the China-Russia diplomatic coordination witnessed certain temporary slackness due to the US tactic of co-opting Russia while suppressing China or vice versa, still, the relationship, in a nutshell, has been very successful and improving.

The second is political cooperation. At the early stage of political cooperation between Beijing and Moscow, the primary issues were to solve boundary disputes, fight against the three evil forces, and oppose interference in other nations' domestic affairs. A mature mechanism of political dialogue was established by the two sides in order to promote bilateral collaboration in political and other fields. The Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation between China and Russia was a major accomplishment of joint work in this regard. The boundary issue is related to China's national dignity, historical memory and the political mutual trust between Beijing and Moscow. Successfully resolving the complicated disputes through joint efforts has created a good environment for developing their political ties and other cooperation. Both China and Russia not only oppose the three evil forces, but also keep carrying out collaboration in this field in Central Asia. In the 21st century, the two sides continue to support each other and cooperate in resisting Color Revolution, maintaining cultural diversity, choosing development path independently and safeguarding the view of history formed after WWII.

The third part is military technology cooperation. From the early years of the 1990s to 2006, China had been the biggest importer of Russian weapons for several consecutive years. A large number of Russian military aircraft, anti-aircraft weapons and naval equipment were bought by China, including the Su-27 and Su-30 jet fighters, Sovremenny Class Destroyers 956 type, Kilo class diesel-electric submarines, S-300 PMU1 anti-aircraft missile system and Tor surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile system. From 2006 to 2013, due to China's need of general military technologies from Russia was nearly saturated, military cooperation between the two sides began to cool down, apart from implementing previous contracts on anti-aircraft missile defense system, aircraft engines, aircraft system and naval equipment. However, China was still one of the major export markets for Russian military technologies. After China and Russia signed the contract for the S-400 Triumf air defense system in 2014, the two welcomed another peak of bilateral military cooperation. This was the first time for Russia to export such systems to a foreign country, and was the biggest deal in the history of Sino-Russian military collaboration. It represented that their cooperation had become strategic and started to play a crucial role in the partnership of strategic coordination. Despite the fact that military technology cooperation between Beijing and Moscow was indirectly promoted by the international situation after the Ukrainian crisis, the improvement of this collaboration still showed the achievements of high-level strategic coordination and long-term cooperation on military technology.

Economic cooperation used to be a weak link in the Sino-Russian partnership, but it has turned to be one of the fundamental elements of their strategic coordination. The volume of trade between China and Russia increased from$6.84 billion in 1996 to $95.28 billion in 2014. Since 2011, China has always been the largest trading partner of Russia, while the latter is also one of the top 10 trading partners of the former. The structure of trade between the two sides is gradually improving, and the proportion of high value-added commodities is increasing. It can be argued that the bilateral trade volume, which was expected by both countries' heads of state to reach $100 billion in 2015, was basically achieved, and now the two sides are planning to increase the volume of trade turnover to $200 billion by 2020. The investment cooperation is lagging behind compared with the trade collaboration, but China has already become the fourth-largest source of investment of Russia. Both sides are trying positively to boost joint work of investment. The continually developed Sino-Russian partnership of strategic coordination promoted bilateral economic cooperation, which in turn, became a driving engine of this strategic relationship.

Energy cooperation has also turned into a new foundation of the partnership. Sino-Russian oil trading has been expanding constantly. From the 1990s, China started to import small amount of oil from Russia. In 2014, Russia's oil export to China totaled 33.1 million tons, and became the third largest oil supplier to China. The year of 2010 marked the completion of crude oil pipeline between China and Russia, which started operation in the following year. Since then, Russia began to steadily provide crude oil to China. The case showed the establishment of the bilateral partnership in oil. The bilateral collaboration of jointly developing oil and gas field, as well as cooperation on petrochemical has been constantly expanding. The Sino-Russian project over gas pipeline was gradually initiated based on the China and Russia Purchase and Sales Contract on East Route Gas Project, which was signed in May 2014, and an agreement on Russian natural gas supply to China via the western route, which was reached in May 2015. Meanwhile, the two countries are also developing their cooperation in nuclear energy, electricity and coal. The cooperative partnership over energy has been consolidated and boosted, and the two have entered a new era of long-term collaboration.