Description
The proposed paper is part of a larger research project dealing with China-Russia rapprochement during the 1990s. This is an important area of enquiry, because the development of China-Russia relations during the first decade of the post-Soviet era remains relatively understudied. Notably, this decade built the foundations of what is today described as the ‘highest level in history’ of relations between the two states. A solid understanding of how relations developed during the 1990s is thus important for an informed assessment of the state and trajectory of contemporary China-Russia relations. This paper takes China-Russia arms trade as one perspective for examining the development of China-Russia relations during the 1990s. How was their arms trade development in the 1990s? Were both sides satisfied with their arms trade at that time? What was the impact of China-Russia arms trade in the 1990s, and is that impact still ongoing? This research would like to bring the latest discoveries from archives and interviews who played the decision-maker or participant roles in the 1990s, with process-tracing methods and document analysis.
