The Bear Watches the Dragon

by Alexander Lukin

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.

Genres: China, History, Russia

440 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2002

About the author

Alexander Lukin
Head, Professor:Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs / School of International Affairs
Laboratory Head:Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs / International Laboratory on World Order Studies and the New Regionalism
Alexander Lukin has been at HSE University since 2014.

Alexander Lukin is Head of the Department of International Relations at National Research University Higher School of Economics and Director of the Centre for East Asian and Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies at MGIMO University in Moscow, Russia. He also holds the position of Chair Professor at Zhejiang University in China.

Dr. Lukin received his first degree from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1984, a DPhil in Politics from Oxford University in 1997, a doctorate in history from the Diplomatic Academy in Moscow in 2007, and a degree in theology from St.Tikhon’s Orthodox University in 2013. He has worked at the Soviet Foreign Ministry, the Soviet Embassy to the PRC, and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. From 1990 to 1993, he served as an elected deputy of the Moscow City Soviet (Council) where he chaired the Sub-Committee for Inter-Regional Relations. He co-authored Three Journeys through China with Andrei Dikarev (Moscow, 1989), wrote The Political Culture of the Russian Democrats (Oxford University Press, 2000), The Bear Watches the Dragon: Russia’s Perceptions of China and the Evolution of Russian-Chinese Relations since the Eighteenth Century (M.E.Sharpe, 2003), Pivot to Asia: Russia’s Foreign Policy Enters the 21st Century (Vij Books India, 2016), China and Russia: The New Rapprochement (Polity Press, 2018), Russia: A Thorny Transition From Communism (Vij Books India, 2019) as well as numerous articles and policy papers on Russian and Chinese politics. He is the editor and a contributor to the major Russian work on Russian-Chinese relations: Russia and China: Four Hundred Years of Interaction (Moscow: Ves’ Mir, 2013) and an Honorary Researcher of Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences. Dr. Lukin has also written on the international situation in East Asia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and Russian-Chinese relations. His works have been published in Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan).

He was a visiting fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University from 1997 to 1998. From 2000 to 2001, he worked as a research fellow at the Center for Northeast Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the Director of the Center for East Asian and Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia), and also served there as an associate professor in the Political Science Department from 1998 until 2007. In 2005, he founded Russia-China. 21st Century – the only Russian magazine devoted to China and Russian-Chinese relations – and served as its editor until 2008. From 2000 to 2006, he was an Associate Researcher at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University. He serves on the editorial board of Asian Politics and Policy, International Problems (Belgrade, Yugoslavia) and The ASAN Forum (Korea). In November 2011 he was appointed Vice President of the Russian Diplomatic Academy (for research and international cooperation). In 2014 he accepted the position of Department Chair at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. In 2009, he was awarded a medal for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Development of Sino-Russian Relations’ by Chinese President Hu Jintao and in 2012 a medal on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for his contribution in the formation and development of the SCO.

Reviews

[Chet]

I remember in college my gay roommate showed me a video of the Penatonix acapella group called "The History of Music" or something like that and basically they did about 10 seconds of old chants, then maybe 5 seconds of a 19th century folk song or two, then the rest of the video was them singing 20th and 21st century pop hits in chronological order. And I of course complained about the imbalance because if you're just gonna call your video "History of Music" then you should be more comprehensive and even in how you cover that topic. My roommate said I should just chill out and enjoy it and why did I have to ruin the fun. Well here's another example where I gotta spoil the fun. The Bear Watches the Dragon advertises itself as a history of Russian views on China from the 18th century onward. But, you guessed it, this book overwhelmingly focuses on only the 20th and 21st centuries. Everything else is glossed over. The last book on Russia I read was Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky biography. I get it that there's more sources available for scholars if you stay in the 20th and 21st centuries but Frank didn't let that stop him. His biography is richly detailed with a huge amount of primary sources, all restricted to the 19th century and earlier. Basically if you read this book just be ready for a heavy focus on the Soviet period and the Putin period. That's the largest chunk of the book. Very little unfortunately on 19th and 18th century Russia.