China’s imports from Russia have expanded significantly since 2009 and Beijing has become Russia’s top export market. For 2021, China’s imports from Russia were worth 79.3 billion USD, with oil and gas accounting for nearly 56% of that. Total trade between Russia and China reached a record high in 2021 (146.9 billion USD), growing by 35.9% year on year, according to China’s customs agency. Russia enjoys a trade surplus with China and since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, China has become Russia’s biggest export partner.
Prepared by
Rahul Karan Reddy
Rahul Karan Reddy is a Senior Research Associate at Organisation for Research on China and Asia (ORCA). He works on domestic Chinese politics and trade, producing data-driven research in the form of reports, dashboards and digital media. He is the author of ‘Islands on the Rocks’, a monograph about the Senkaku/Diaoyu island dispute between China and Japan. Rahul was previously a research analyst at the Chennai Center for China Studies (C3S). He is the creator of the India-China Trade dashboard and the Chinese Provincial Development Indicators dashboard. His work has been published in The Diplomat, East Asia Forum, ISDP & Tokyo Review, among others. He can be reached via email at [email protected] and @RahulKaranRedd1 on Twitter.