Source: wechat official account: Jiubian has been authorized to reprint
As we have talked before, China and Russia actually have back-to-back relations, which are not as close as they seem. The biggest reason for China Russia cooperation is mainly because of the United States. This is also why Russia and India are so good. In essence, they are also defending our country through the “Russia India alliance”.
If we look at this issue from the perspective of Russia, it is also obvious that Siberia is so big, so close to China’s core area, but very far from Russia’s own core area. No one can rest assured. Especially against the backdrop of Russia’s continuous decline, we are particularly worried about our gradual penetration into the Far East.
In other words, as long as there is such a long border, Sino Russian relations will not be better;
As long as the United States does not fall, the relationship between China and Russia will be no worse.
As long as China remains strong, Russia and India will continue to be good.
Today, let’s talk about what the Chinese are doing in Siberia.
(I)
Siberia is very, very big, followed by very, very desolate.
Bounded by the Ural Mountains, Siberia stretches eastward to the sea. It is 13 million square kilometers, larger than the area of China and India. The population is less than 40 million, which is the population size of a medium-sized Province in China. These people are getting older and older, and the population is declining every year.
The entire Siberian region is divided into three parts: the west, the middle and the East. In the west, there are plains, rivers and forests. The central part is relatively high, covered with snow and trees. The East is the world of mountains, permafrost and tundra, and many residents are Eskimos. The whole Siberia is basically not suitable for human habitation, and people are concentrated in the south. Like Canada, people are close to the US Canada border.
The main reason for this is that it is too cold here. It is often said in the news that the “Siberian cold current” originates in the Arctic. As soon as it comes, China will cool down. In fact, the cold wave here is at the end of its life. It spans thousands of kilometers, crosses several mountains that stretch thousands of kilometers, and finally arrives here. Just think about how arrogant this thing is in Siberia, which is closer to the source.
Because of the cold, the terrain there is characterized by forests, tundra and rivers in flat places and snow mountains in uneven places.
In such a cold weather, even rough Russian wool is mainly rough in Siberia. The population is distributed on both sides of the railway and the highway extending from the railway. The most famous Siberian Railway, an engineering miracle more than 100 years ago, also extends along the southernmost part of Siberia.
The way of human existence in Siberia is to follow the trunk railway as the trunk line and take the big station on the road as the center, from which branch railways and highways are spread, radiating out one residential area after another, and the whole is like a big centipede.
Leaving the area near these points and lines is also unknown to the local people. Although the north side of the railway is so big, there are hardly any people. You can open the map. There are few cities in the north. The same is true of Canada.
The history of Chinese people coming to Siberia is not long, which is marked by the reform of the Soviet Union, that is, in the 1980s. Before that, Siberia was the rear of the Soviet Union, and other foreigners were basically not allowed to come here.
During the Soviet Union, Siberia was a no fly zone. In 1983, a Korean plane numbered 007 flew from Alaska to Seoul with nearly 300 people on board, but somehow it flew to Kamchatka Peninsula. The Soviet Union thought it was a spy plane modified from an airliner. So the Soviet military plane immediately took off to drive the “spy plane” down, triggering a major event that shocked the world.
Even now, Russia is still adamant in not opening Siberian airspace. The real influx of Chinese people came after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the jobs they did in Siberia at different times were different.
(II)
The earliest came from small Chinese businessmen in the 1990s. At that time, every train to Russia gathered a large number of Chinese people, and everyone carried all kinds of things. It contains all kinds of domestic small commodities. Because of the economic system of the Soviet Union, there was a great shortage of light industrial products, and small commodities could earn several times or even more than ten times the profits in the past. At that time, these people were known as “profiteers”.
It’s not easy to do that.
First of all, I’m tired. I want to bring as many things as possible so that I can earn more money. But the Siberian railway train at that time had to go for more than a week. It was very, very uncomfortable to squeeze in the carriage (more in the aisle) with a lot of things, according to the description of the person concerned.
Besides being tired, danger is everywhere. At that time, it was all in cash, and Chinese businessmen had a lot of money with them, so it was common to be robbed.
The lighter ones are Russian police or hooligans (there was no big difference between them at that time). Chinese businessmen who are familiar with these two kinds of people are very familiar. Police wear uniforms and hooligans wear pirated Adidas (generally bought from Chinese people). When they reached out, he took out the $10 he had prepared and handed it to them. The other party will take it and touch it to know whether it is true or not. He will let you pass on his side. Sometimes there is no dialogue throughout the whole process, and like the toll booth, it is very tacit.
The more serious is open robbery. If valuable things are not hidden enough, they may be robbed. Some Russians pretended to be black drivers in Moscow and drove Chinese businessmen directly to places with few people. Don’t say anything, beat them first, until you start to think about what you can do, take the initiative to ask for the money, and they reluctantly accept it.
In 1993, the famous “China Russia train robbery” occurred. For six days, four gangs took turns to get on the bus and rob. Two gangs of gangsters still collided with each other, so one group started from the front of the car and the other from the back of the car, and they grabbed as much as they could. The case was so serious that the Ministry of public security set up an investigation team to pursue the murderer, and finally shot more than 20 people.
However, the most terrible thing is to encounter “official robbery”. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia’s system has been relatively chaotic, and often its policies change several times a year. New laws have been promulgated many times, and a large number of Chinese businessmen have been declared illegal. In case of such a thing, all we have to do is run quickly. Those who are lucky and move quickly can still escape with the money in the account. Those who are unlucky and have lost their wealth should be caught in, and relatives and friends should be asked to raise money to “redeem” them.
Otherwise, Russian prisons are notoriously bad. Most of the Chinese people who do business in Russia are prepared to run away at any time, and they will be soft as soon as the wind blows.
About that period of history, the best film is Feng Gong’s kiss Russia, although it slightly downplays the hardships of the fallen master. But the depiction of the group images is very accurate, and the social environment at that time is also very restored. Many Chinese and Russians earned their first pot of gold in this way. Most of the goods transported along the Siberian Railway go to densely populated areas in Russia and Europe. But at every place along the road, some will be unloaded and sold locally. This is also the beginning of the scale of the Chinese people’s Congress after the lifting of the blockade of Siberia.
Soon, with a certain amount of capital accumulation, Chinese people will no longer only sell Chinese products in Siberia. Because Siberia is really “fat” and there are many business opportunities.
(III)
Siberia has unimaginable resources, especially various minerals.
As for the abundance of mineral deposits there, there is a saying: Russia says how many minerals there are in Siberia, not the proven quantity, but the quantity it thinks may be mined among the countless mineral deposits.
When the Soviet Union explored in Siberia, there were too many mines and too many places. The traditional way was not sure how long it would last. So the wild Soviets began to explore with nuclear weapons in 1971! The way is to dig a deep well first, then detonate the nuclear bomb, record the generated seismic wave with equipment, and roughly know the mineral situation in this area through waveform analysis. In addition, during the cold war, the United States and the Soviet Union both used nuclear bombs to bomb canals and reservoirs.
We used dozens of nuclear bombs to explore the territory of the Soviet Union, especially Siberia. The results of nuclear exploration are very rich. The Soviets have discovered dozens of potential natural gas fields, mineral deposits and oil fields
However, having a mine at home does not mean that it can be exploited smoothly. After all, it is too cold and hard in that place. During the Soviet period, a large number of “oil cities” and “natural gas cities” were built to transport a large number of working families to Siberia for mining. However, this mode is doomed to be very costly and unsustainable. Therefore, Siberia now has a large number of completely abandoned industrial cities and Communist Youth cities. It’s too hard in that place. If there’s a chance, people there will run back to the West.
In this context, despite Russia’s reluctance, several Russian Republics (Russia is a federation, and there are many republics under it, similar to the states of the United States) have contracted their mines to Chinese enterprises, with a very large amount of work and investment, including railways, power plants, stock selection yards, and so on. However, the number is not particularly large, mainly because Russia is more vigilant, and generally does not approve such projects casually. On the other hand, the investment is too large, and the policy is relatively vacillating, so few people dare to go.
At present, what the Chinese are most involved in is their timber industry. The amount of timber in Siberia is dizzying. It is said that there are 20% of the world’s forest stocks here. And there are many kinds and good quality, which have a good market in China. The key is that the price is cheap.
But this business is not too easy. After all, the Russian tradition is there, and it is always blackmailed by officials, police and hooligans. In addition, if something happens, Moscow will intervene. It will stop all operations whether they are legal or illegal, and then officials will start to carefully examine the problem. Foreign timber enterprises, in particular, are too big and too small to catch the slightest problem.
This is not aimed at the Chinese people. It can only be said that in the view of local officials, those who really dare to conduct large-scale illegal logging either have backstage or courage. It’s really annoying. The purpose of cracking down on illegal logging is mainly for tax. Since you want money, who should you turn to? There is no burden on foreign businessmen who have no foundation.
In 2019, a fire in the Irkutsk region of Siberia burned a forest as large as Hainan. After the investigation, the result was that the illegal fellers were afraid of being caught, so they simply lit a fire. This is exactly the same as the fire that broke out when we checked the accounts in ancient times.
The matter can’t be found out at all, so it can only be settled.
What’s funny is that Russia has always wanted to sawn logs into wood pieces for export, so that it can earn more money, which is equivalent to semi processed products. It’s just that Russia is short of people, but it is short of electric saws and consumables, and it has been uncertain. These two days, the Russians are studying and preparing to increase the tariff on plateau wood, forcing the Chinese to buy electric saws from home and saw wood in Russia.
Even so, the Chinese timber business is doing well in Siberia. Who would say that China is the largest consumer market of local timber, accounting for the majority of local timber exports. At present, China’s timber is also a trillion yuan industry, and most of the imported part is imported from Russia.
Besides timber, Siberia has the most land. So the Chinese took a fancy to this business.
(IV)
Much of the plain area of Siberia is chernozem, which is the same as or even more fertile than the northeast area. Moreover, a lot of land is not wasteland and has been planted. For example, in the “corn Xiaofu” era, large-scale reclamation was carried out in Siberia. Although it was turned yellow later, many areas were abandoned.
Let me say a few more words about Khrushchev’s planting corn. At that time, he debated with the Americans, but at the same time he sincerely envied the Americans for being able to plant so much corn. Therefore, after returning home, he pushed corn in Siberia, and later chicken feathers everywhere. But this is not the key to the problem. Siberia can’t grow corn, but it can grow wheat and barley. At that time, someone reminded us that the Soviet Union was very rigid. No one listened to Khrushchev’s order. Everyone went to plant corn. In the end, it was lonely. The grass-roots bureaucrats were worried about being punished, and even imported corn from abroad to fool him.
Later, he finally responded, stopped tossing about corn, began to plant wheat realistically, and built a large number of agricultural cities in Siberia, which reached 150 at its peak. It’s just that the people there are totally blind, relying on the good soil, they just throw the seeds out and it’s all over. Even now, they grow up according to fate. So they are not rich and hate the cold weather extremely. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many people returned to the West of the Ural Mountains and no longer stay in Siberia. Therefore, in Siberia, large areas of abandoned land can be seen in many places.
That is to say, many places in Siberia can grow land, but there are no people, and modern agriculture is not driven by people, but by capital. They have to buy a large number of machinery and equipment, pesticides and fertilizers. Russians happen to have no money. The rich are those energy oligarchs, who are used to making fast money. How can they go to the Far East to engage in agriculture without shit.
According to an old brother, he was originally doing timber business in Siberia. Every time I see the black land abandoned by the landlord, I have a flame burning in my heart. I want to pull up the grass on it and plant food.
Later, he began to contract for land, which cost 10 yuan per mu per year. He contracted for 3000 mu and signed a five-year contract at once. Then he found that 3000 mu of land was really a little big, and the whole village in his hometown only had 1600 mu of land. Later, he brought several brothers from China, bought second-hand domestic machinery and equipment, and began to farm in Siberia.
This also highlights a dilemma of Russia. The Russians want to defend Siberia, but there are no one; Let’s abandon it all. I can’t bear to part with it. I had to turn a blind eye and let the Chinese go in and make some money. At least we can feed the grassroots, otherwise we will run out of them.
Of course, the Chinese people are not smooth sailing there. In addition to the cold, there is also a shortage of people. What is more troublesome is the “random policy” with Russian characteristics, which changes from time to time, coupled with the habitual corruption of local officials. The reputation of the Chinese people for not wanting to cause trouble is so famous that the local drunkards and scoundrels (many of them are also officials) regard the Chinese people as “fat sheep”.
Although there are many difficulties, because there are indeed profits, the scale of Chinese land cultivation in Siberia is growing and the number of people is increasing. This is a bit like India. Going there to do business is also exploited layer upon layer, but many people do make money, so a large number of Chinese businessmen go to India one after another.
After planting the land, you can guess that it is our traditional artistic ability, growing vegetables.
Russian food is too expensive. It’s normal to sell cucumbers and tomatoes in winter for tens of yuan per kilogram. Besides the price, the Russian people’s eating habits are very different from those of the Chinese people. They are the standard nomadic diet, with more meat, eggs and milk and less vitamins.
At the beginning, Chinese people planted in front of and behind their houses. They took advantage of the weather to order dishes and improve the food. Sometimes they even gave it to familiar locals to taste. Then we planted them in the field and sold them after harvest. The price of vegetables in Siberia is so high that the income of growing vegetables is much higher than that of growing land.
Now it has become very large-scale. If Russia deregulates, it will not be surprising that it will become larger and larger in the future.
(V)
However, there is a group of Chinese people who are engaged in alternative “mining” business in Russia.
We are mining virtual coins such as bitcoin, although the specific starting time can not be verified. But at the latest after 2012, the scale of bitcoin mining by Chinese people in Siberia will be very large. Last year, China completely banned mining in China, and many of them moved to Russia.
The area with the most mining machines is Irkutsk on the Bank of Baikal Lake, because this place is basically a city designed for mining. Only in the past, metal mines were dug, but now bitcoin is dug. It used to be a heavy industrial city and a key area for the development of Siberia in the Soviet Union. There are a large number of rivers flowing into Baikal Lake nearby, which is extremely rich in water resources. At the same time, there are a large number of high-quality shallow coal mines.
There are several huge hydropower stations near Irkutsk, and thermal power stations have also been built due to abundant coal mines. This makes it the place with the lowest electricity price in Russia. The electricity per kilowatt hour in cities is 0.15 yuan, and in rural areas it is only a few cents. In addition, the temperature here is very low (the low temperature can reach nearly 40 degrees below zero). As we all know, one of the most troublesome things in bitcoin mining is heat dissipation. The temperature in Siberia is so low, the natural heat dissipation is good, and the mining business is very developed.
How far has it developed? It has arrived because the electricity consumption is too large, which can cause local power outage. The local government is very angry about this: the miners are trying to scrape the civil electricity instead of using the industrial electricity stipulated by them. The industrial electricity costs 0.4 yuan. Therefore, we must crack down on this kind of “robbing” behavior.
However, the so-called “Sky High Emperor is far away”, because bitcoin’s profits are relatively strong, and the mine does not care about the blow. Moreover, most of the mines are located in remote rural areas. As long as they don’t owe electricity bills, they are unlikely to be caught. Even if they are caught, most of them will be fined. Therefore, the impact of the crackdown is not great. In addition, the Russian military is also digging for bitcoin there, and officials think that the military may have damaged the electricity.
In fact, the local people also understand that if they really grasp it too tightly, it will not be cost-effective: first, unprofitable will force the mine to move, and what will they earn if they move away; Second, these mines are an important source of income for many people. We won’t really investigate them. We can only compensate for some of the losses through fines.
Besides the Chinese, the local people are also attracted by this business and have long participated in the mining industry. In the local area, some people go it alone on a small scale, using their own garage, warehouse and other spare places to buy some equipment for mining.
People with connections, as early as when the Chinese people first arrived, began to make a lot of money by mining.
Some of these people do brokerage business to “settle” various problems for Chinese mines. From handling visas, renting land, building mines, connecting power lines and arranging living facilities, we can deal with non-compliance, such as electricity theft, government law enforcement, fines, residents’ complaints, mine pollution and so on. Some local people, who are relatively rich and have investment vision, either share shares with Chinese people or work alone, and also build mines. It is said that compared with the low-key approach of the Chinese, their attitude is more “open”. Some of the more powerful simply find an abandoned village where electricity is convenient, cut off the road directly, and “occupy the mountain as the king” in it. Even some people can cooperate with the people of the power station to open the mine near the power station. Production and excavation on site, seamless connection.
It can be said that in the local area, this has long been a situation of “the law is not responsible for the public”.
It is the warmest period of the year while the Irkutsk mining machine is roaring. In the Yakut region of Siberia near the Arctic Ocean, many people are also quietly digging.
(VI)
What these people are digging is not mineral gems, but “corpses”. That is, the remains of the long extinct mammoth. With the popularization and strengthening of animal protection, ivory as a commodity is almost banned in the world. But in human history, ivory has been loved for thousands of years.
Banning Ivory trading has objectively made Ivory scarce and more expensive, so an alternative has been found: to dig mammoth ivory in the permafrost.
The so-called mammoth is the long haired elephant in ice age. It was once widely distributed in Siberia, Alaska, Canada and other cold regions of the northern hemisphere. Human ancestors also hunted mammoths, but about 10000 years ago, mammoths were completely extinct.
Because it has long been extinct, there is no problem of killing wild animals. In theory, mammoth tusks are “fossils”. But after being excavated, it can be processed into handicrafts and ornaments just like real ivory. Moreover, mammoths are taller than modern elephants (the largest can grow to 12 tons), and their tusks are also thicker, denser and harder, which can depict more complicated details. So as soon as it appeared, it was very popular in the literary and entertainment circles.
Mammoth tusks are also good or bad.
Especially a kind of ivory called blue skin. After years of burial, the ivory is infiltrated by minerals, and the epidermis produces various colors. Mainly in black, yellow and blue, of which blue is the least and the most expensive. In blue, there are also different shades, patterns, designs and colors, and the prices are also very different.
How valuable are mammoth teeth? If it is a complete ivory, the person who finds it can get about 200000 to 500000 yuan, mainly depending on the quality. When this piece of ivory is made into jewelry for sale, the price will be more than five times the purchase price.
Yakut region is the most remote place in Siberia. The income of the local people is very low. An ivory is the annual income of the local people. This has prompted people to enter the wilderness to “search for treasure” as soon as the snow melts. Many Chinese have also joined the treasure hunt in recent years.
The whole journey was very difficult.
As I said before, once the frozen soil in Siberia melts, it will become a mud pit. The places where ivory is dug are barren places, and it is very difficult to get there. You should also bring accommodation equipment, food, excavation tools and handling tools. Therefore, many times, in order to facilitate entry and exit, local people use boats as vehicles along the coast or rivers.
Even Ivory collectors are stationed by the sea and pay cash on the spot. Now we all know why Africa has “Ivory Coast” and “Gold Coast”, which are basically the same as this situation. Secondly, at this time, no matter in the forest, tundra or swamp, there are all kinds of insects everywhere. Siberian mosquitoes gather everywhere, like black pillars in the distance and a black tornado in the near.
Another is that ivory is not placed on the ground. It is necessary to dig in muddy land, because the location is too remote, and mechanical equipment is not desirable. It is all done by hand. If you’re unlucky and can’t find the ivory, you’ll have nothing to eat. Even because of soil quality and other problems, accidents that hurt people and even killed people occur from time to time.
However, “some people do beheading business and others do loss making business”. For the local people, it is most important to earn money to support their families.
Because the situation of ivory excavation is very serious, the Russian government is not doing nothing. First, it is stipulated that excavation must be permitted, otherwise, if it is caught, it will be fined. Then, the illegal purchase, transportation and processing of ivory will be severely punished. At the same time, the customs will strictly inspect anyone who carries ivory. If they are found, they will not only be fined but may even be imprisoned. On the contrary, in Russia, there is nothing that can not be solved by fines. If it is really impossible, it can be basically solved by giving money to pimps or officials directly.
Therefore, various regulations have almost no effect. Yakut, where ivory is mined, has a population of just over 1 million, with an area of nearly 4 million square kilometers. Here, once any government decree violates the interests of the local people, it is almost impossible to implement it. Moreover, the local population is largely non Russian, and the government is also timid in dealing with it.
Moreover, Russian officials are so famous for their corruption and inefficiency. Over the past few years, it is conservatively estimated that hundreds of tons of mammoth tusks are dug up every year and basically sent to China and India, except for some who are not sure whether they are unlucky or regarded as typical.
After these ivory were processed, in addition to being sold in China, India was also a major market for mammoth ivory. Because elephants are India’s national treasures and symbols, the elephant head God is one of India’s most famous gods. Ivory is considered by Indians to be able to protect themselves (elephant head God said I thank your family).
(Epilogue)
Having said so much, we can also see that Siberia in Russia is a real treasure house, but this treasure house is definitely a capital – and human intensive industry. In Russia’s current state, it is impossible to dig it out. People there are getting poorer and poorer, so they have to flee to western cities on a large scale, leading to a more empty and vicious cycle in Siberia.
Although Russia is not willing to do so, with the Russian Ukrainian war coming to an end, Russia’s future decline has become very obvious. They can only continuously strengthen cooperation with China, and their resources can only be sold to us and India if they want to sell them.
By then, there will be more and more Chinese people mining and farming in the vast Siberia. In a few years, you will hear more and more about Siberia, just as “Africa” has been mentioned more and more in recent years.
As long as Russia can cooperate well, do not waver in policies, respect contracts and contracts, use China’s capital strength and human resources to turn Siberia into a big warehouse, it is not a big problem, they can make some money, and we can also get rid of our dependence on western resources to a certain extent. Only then will we win many times.
(end)