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On June 10, Russia and China announced the official opening of the Heilongjiang River Bridge, the first transnational highway bridge between the two countries. While confronting the West over the invasion of Ukraine, Russia is turning to Asia for support.

The bridge, more than one kilometer long, connects Blagoveshchensk, the capital of Russia’s far eastern Amur region, with the city of Heihe in northern China’s Heilongjiang province. Although it was started in 2016 and completed in 2019, the opening ceremony was delayed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to official figures, the bridge, which cost 19 billion rubles (about US$328 million), is a two-lane road. According to Chinese media, the bridge is currently limited to cargo traffic only.

Source: Central News Agency, June 10, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202206100334.aspx

On May 30, 2022, a forum was sponsored by the Chongyang Institute of Financial Studies at Renmin University in China. Chen Wenling, Chief Economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), a Chinese government think tank, gave a talk, according to the China based website guancha.cn.

Chen said, “China should be prepared for the U.S. strategic containment and suppression of China, and make sure that the supply chains are under control.  . . .  We need to sort out the advantages that will sufficiently scare our opponents and cause them irreversible losses and pressures. As a countermeasure, we need to stall and slow as much as possible our opponents’ moves to cut off the supply chain, the chain of scientific and technological cooperation, and the chain of innovation.”

“If the U.S. and the West impose destructive sanctions on China as they did on Russia, we must take back Taiwan. In terms of carrying out industrial chain and supply chain restructuring, we must get hold of TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) and other companies that originally belonged to China. They are accelerating the transfer to the United States to establish six plants over there. We absolutely cannot let their goal of transfer be achieved.” TSMC is the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturing and design company. It is the world’s most valuable semiconductor company, the world’s largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, and one of Taiwan’s largest companies.

“We need to support Russia openly, reasonably and by every possible means. For example, the recent Sino-Russian joint air exercises and so on. We can do more in trade, so that China and Russia can dovetail the ‘Belt & Road’ with the Eurasian Economic Union proposed by Putin to form a strategic depth in China, a Silk Road economic belt, and an energy security belt as a major security barrier.”

“It is necessary to step up cooperation with Europe. Europe is deeply affected by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and the euro will be hit hard economically in the future. In addition, Europe will see a food crisis, an energy crisis and a refugee crisis. In the time of crisis in Europe, China can offer a helping hand and increase cooperation between China and Europe, so that the two plates of Asia and Europe can return to their historical status as political and economic centers.”

Source: Guancha.cn, June 6, 2022
https://www.guancha.cn/chenwenling/2022_06_06_643134_s.shtml