Ethnic Chinese in Russia
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (200,000–400,000 (2004)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Moscow, Russian Far East | |
| Languages | |
| Chinese, Russian | |
| Religion | |
| Buddhism, Eastern Orthodoxy | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Overseas Chinese |
Ethnic Chinese in Russia officially numbered 34,577 according to the 2002 census. However, this figure is contested, with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission of the Republic of China on Taiwan claiming 998,000 in 2004 and 2005, and Russian demographers generally accepting estimates in the 200,000–400,000 range as of 2004. Temporary migration and shuttle trade conducted by Chinese merchants are most prevalent in Russia's Far Eastern Federal District, but most go back and forth across the border without settling down in Russia; the Chinese community in Moscow has a higher proportion of long-term residents. Their number has been shrinking since 2013.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty, which came to rule over China in the mid-17th century, traditionally regarded the territory of East Tartary or Outer Manchuria—now known as the Russian Far East—as its own. The Russian trans-Ural expansion into the area resulted in a low level of armed conflict during the 1670s and 1680s; in 1685 the two sides agreed to meet for boundary negotiations. The result was the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk, under which the Qing relented from their earlier claims of territory all the way up to the Lena River, in exchange for the destruction of Russian forts and settlements in the Amur River basin. However, under the 1860 Treaty of Peking, the Qing ceded even the far bank of the Amur River to Russia. They retained administrative rights over the residents of the Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilongjiang River (though not sovereignty over the territory itself); however, Russian troops massacred Qing subjects from the territory during the Boxer Rebellion.
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