China and Its Neighbors, Part 5: Russia

By Lawrence Sheets

Published February 19, 2004 at 11:00 PM CST

Some Russian nationalists forward a conspiracy theory that China, with 1.3 billion people, may seek to ease overcrowding by expanding into Russia's sparsely populated Far East.

Russia, the world's biggest country, and China, the world's most populous, frequently clashed during the Cold War. The two giants spent decades engaged in an ideological rivalry and border skirmishes, but have since put much of that open hostility behind them.

Russia and China now officially call their relationship a "strategic partnership." But many Russians retain a mistrust of China, especially in light of its increasing economic and political might. NPR's Lawrence Sheets reports from the Far Eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk.

Lawrence Sheets

Lawrence Scott Sheets concentrates on covering the Caucasus region of the former Soviet Union from his base in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. From 2001 to 2005, Sheets was NPR’s Moscow Bureau Chief, and covered the countries of former USSR, including Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asia. Among major stories Sheets has covered for NPR have been the tragic siege of a school by a pro-Chechen separatist terror group in 2004 in which 330 mostly children were killed, the 6-week long "Orange Revolution" that brought down Ukraine’s old government in 2004, and the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia in 2003. Sheets has also reported for NPR from Iran and Afghanistan. He covered the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan during 2001 and 2002, including the bloody Taliban uprising at a fortress in Mazar e Sharif in which hundreds of people died.Sheets’ reports can be heard on NPR's , All Things Considered, Day to Day, and Weekend Edition.