Chinese Land Deals and Migration in the Russian Far East: Positionality Changes in the Borderlands

This chapter examines the importance of positionality for understanding attitudes towards regionalism in local contexts. It does through a close examination of recent developments along the Sino-Russian borderlands. Russia’s reorientation to Asia has focused attention on agricultural investment in the Russian Far East, a development also encouraged by concerns over food security in both Russia and Asian countries. This has the Russian Far East to become a new frontier for agricultural investment, and with Chinese, Korean, and Japanese agribusiness investments already managing agriculture here, it has regional implications. The chapter focuses on two oblasts—the Amur Oblast and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast—which border China, and depend on it for investment, the trade of their agricultural products, and the labour for its production. While debates on the Russian Far East tend to describe the region’s positionality based on connectivity between Moscow and the Russian Far East, or between Moscow and Beijing, closer spatial human connections among local authorities, local residents, local and foreign workers, and business organizations across the border are also important for understanding these borderlands and their potential regional significance.