From machinery and cars, to medical devices and home appliances, Chinese products have flooded the vast market to the north, filling the void left by Western companies who withdrew following the outbreak of war in February 2022.
“Two years ago we were concerned about the possible colossal damage on the economy, but it turned out Russia has held up well so far,” Liu said.
Nearly two years into the war, Russia appears to have defied the Western sanctions that could have strangled its economy.
It did suffer a mild recession, with a 2.1 per cent drop in economic growth in 2022, but it was considerably better than the contraction of between 10 and 15 per cent predicted at the start of the war.
Russia suffered little from sanctions. And China takes lessons from that occurrence.
“If there is anything that China can draw from, it is the need to keep leading companies and key parts of supply chains within China in the worst-case scenario of a big power play, such as a war,” he said.
China is aiming to expand the potential of a resilient and large domestic market, backed by a burgeoning middle class of at least 400 million people, as a key pillar for its dual-circulation strategy.
The strategy places a greater focus on the domestic market, while becoming less reliant on its export-oriented development strategy, but without abandoning it altogether.