The Contents of the «Far Eastern Studies» N1, 2026.
Contents
Politics
Kuzminkov V.V. Russia—Japan Relations in the Context of the Linkage between Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Security Architectures
Trukhin A.S., Khmeleva G.A. Strategic Partnership between China and the Republic of Iraq: 2015–2025
Platonova V.D. Managing Electoral Behavior in the Republic of Korea: Synthesis of Cultural Codes and Digital Technologies
Economics
Steblyanskaya A.N. Scientific and Technological Development of the People’s Republic of China: Guidelines of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030)
Stepanov N.S. New Trends in Cross-Border Payments in the Global South
Makarov A.V., Makarova E.V. Modern Specifics and Infrastructure Limitations of Economic Development in Mongolia
State and Society
Ulyanova M.Yu. The Role of the Democratic League of China in the System of Multiparty Cooperation and Public Administration of the PRC in the Modern Period
Borokh O.N. Chinese Political Economy Textbooks of the 1950s and Early 1960s: Soviet Influence and National Characteristics
Theory and Methodology
Gavrilov V.V. Modern Chinese Doctrine of International Law
History
Efendieva G.V., Levoshko S.S. From Personal Letters to Working Drawings: New Materials for the Creative Biography of Architect M.M. Oskolkov
Culture
Maliavin V.V. The “Bone Marrow Washing Classic” and the Tradition of “Internal Achievement” in China
Education
Guleva M.A. Corporate Training in China: A Comprehensive Analysis of Strategies, Programs, and Workforce Adaptation in the Face of Global Challenges
Scientific Events
Kudakaev R.F. 15th All-Russian Conference “Modern Chinese State” 2026
Book Reviews
Timofeev O.A. Book Review: 道义现实主义: 争论与批判 / 阎学通、方圆圆 编著 [Moral Realism: Debate and Criticism / ed. by Yan Xuetong, Fang Yuanyuan]. 北京: 中信出版社, 2025年. 419页.
Russia—Japan Relations in the Context of the Linkage between Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Security Architectures
Victor V. Kuzminkov
This article examines the state and dynamics of Russian-Japanese relations after 2022 in the context of a deteriorating international situation. It demonstrates that the Ukrainian conflict and subsequent events have accelerated a reassessment of Japanese security priorities and cemented in official discourse the notion of the interdependence of Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific security, which has gained practical significance for strategic planning. It focuses on the impact of Tokyo’s expanding coordination with its G7 and NATO partners on the bilateral agenda with Russia, including the prospects for a peace treaty. It is established that the development of practical cooperation between Japan and NATO increases the importance of defense-political factors and alliance commitments when assessing the prospects for dialogue with Russia, thereby transforming the terms of the bilateral negotiating agenda. The frequency of political contacts is declining, and territorial issues are increasingly linked to the coalition agenda of Japan and its partners and are becoming more sensitive to external signals, while compromise approaches based on the legacy of the Joint Declaration of 1956 are losing their political feasibility. The mechanism for institutionalizing restrictions through standards, compatibility, and compliance regimes, which increase the cost of partially normalizing relations with Russia, is separately explored. Particular attention is paid to the discrepancy between public statements about a possible return to negotiations after de-escalation in Europe and the simultaneous strengthening of sanctions, military-political, and technological cooperation between Japan and its Western partners, including NATO. The conclusion offers three scenarios for further developments and indicators for monitoring Russian-Japanese relations.
Strategic Partnership between China and the Republic of Iraq: 2015–2025
Alexander S. Trukhin
Galina A. Khmeleva
This article examines the transformation of relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Iraq from 2015 to 2025, which evolved into a comprehensive strategic partnership with a pronounced economic focus. The study investigates the key factors, mechanisms, and consequences of China’s rapid consolidation of influence in Iraq against the backdrop of a shifting regional balance of power and the relative decline of traditional Western actors.
The analysis concentrates on the practical aspects of bilateral cooperation. It details the dynamics of trade turnover, where China has emerged as Iraq’s primary partner, with the trade structure—Chinese exports of machinery and equipment in exchange for Iraqi hydrocarbons—illustrating a model of complementary economies. Central to the work is an examination of China’s investment strategy, grounded in long-term «oil-for-reconstruction» agreements, which have secured Chinese companies’ access to key oil assets and large-scale infrastructure projects in Iraq’s southern provinces.
The author approaches China’s presence as a multi-faceted phenomenon, encompassing not only energy and construction but also the social sphere (education, healthcare). The study also assesses the reactions to this process from the United States, Iraq’s regional neighbors, and domestic political forces within Iraq itself. The conclusion posits that China’s pragmatic, non-ideological, and results-oriented policy, focused on tangible infrastructure outcomes, has not only secured its dominant economic position but has also presented an alternative model of engagement with Middle Eastern states. This shift carries significant geopolitical implications for the entire region. The research is based on international statistics, contractual documents, and expert assessments.
Managing Electoral Behavior in the Republic of Korea: Synthesis of Cultural Codes and Digital Technologies
Varvara D. Platonova
This article examines the exceptional effectiveness of electoral technologies in the Republic of Korea, where the digital, cutting-edge nature of political campaigns has found unexpected resonance in the deep layers of traditional culture. The author argues that their power stems not from the generation of new behavioral patterns, but from the reinforcement and instrumentalization of deep-seated cultural attitudes that have historically shaped Korean society. The authenticity of the South Korean case is revealed through an analysis of the symbiosis of archaic semantic systems — Confucianism, Buddhism, and shamanism — with modern digital means of political communication. It explores how elements of cultural code such as hierarchy, collectivism, the «han» complex, and shamanic pragmatism provide fertile ground for targeted influence. Digital technologies, including Big Data, deepfakes, and targeted advertising, function as a high-precision amplifier within this system, delivering archaic narratives in a new form adapted to the digital environment, appealing to the collective unconscious. Using the 2022–2025 electoral cycle, the article demonstrates the practical methods of this interaction. Parliamentary campaigns and early presidential elections have exposed the core of a political transformation, in which deepfakes and virtual debates have become a hybrid extension of traditional campaigning. Through the lens of code and technology synthesis, phenomena such as radical gender polarization among young people and the erosion of traditional regional cleavages within the electorate are explained. This work contributes to our understanding of how the digital environment actualizes ancient cultural patterns, elevating political struggle to the level of deep-seated value contradictions.
Scientific and Technological Development of the People’s Republic of China: Guidelines of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030)
Alina N. Steblyanskaya
The article analyzes China’s scientific and technological development in the context of the approved guidelines of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030). It examines the evolution of state policy in science and innovation, starting from the funding system reforms of the 1980s—1990s, which laid the foundation for integrating research with industry. Special attention is paid to the dynamics of R&D funding: it is shown that by 2025, total expenditure reached 3,926.2 billion yuan, with an intensity of 2,80 % of GDP, for the first time exceeding the average level of OECD countries. The share of basic research rose to a record 7,08 %, indicating a strategic shift towards building an indigenous scientific base. Based on official statistical data, regional differentiation is analyzed: the leadership of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong contrasts with the low indicators of western provinces, necessitating targeted policies. China’s patent activity (world leader in PCT applications, 60 % of AI patents) and publication performance are examined. It is concluded that by the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China has formed a powerful innovation ecosystem capable of addressing the tasks of technological sovereignty and developing «new quality productive forces», as enshrined in the strategic documents of 2025–2026.
New Trends in Cross-Border Payments in the Global South
Nikita S. Stepanov
In the context of growing geoeconomic fragmentation and intensifying sanctions pressure, countries of the Global South are actively developing institutional and technological alternatives to the dominant dollar-based financial system. This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of cross-border payment mechanisms emerging as part of the growing cooperation among BRICS, the SCO, and other regional associations. The aim of the study is to systematize the key trends, instruments, and institutions defining the contours of the emerging financial architecture of the Global South, as well as to assess their combined potential for building a more polycentric global monetary and financial system. The methodological basis of the work is a comparative and institutional analysis, supplemented by case studies. The paper consistently and thoroughly examines such interrelated phenomena as the revival and profound modernization of barter trade through multilateral clearing mechanisms; The use of third-party payment infrastructures and financial intermediaries to circumvent restrictions; the rapid development and implementation of central bank digital currencies, primarily the Chinese digital yuan; and ambitious projects to create supranational units of account within the BRICS and SCO. Particular attention is paid to the prospects of the «BRICS Bridge» initiative as a potentially integrative technological solution designed to provide connectivity between various national payment systems and CBDCs. The study demonstrates that the emerging payments ecosystem of the «Global South» is hybrid, multi-vector, and largely experimental in nature, combining elements of traditional finance with disruptive digital technologies. It is concluded that, despite existing challenges, including legal uncertainty, technical risks, compatibility issues, and achieving political consensus, the process of de-dollarization of mutual settlements between countries of the «Global South» is a sustainable and irreversible long-term trend.
Modern Specifics and Infrastructure Limitations of Economic Development in Mongolia
Alexander V. Makarov
Elena V. Makarova
The paper reveals the current problems and prospects of economic development in Mongolia. It demonstrates that over the past 20 years, the country has developed economic model based on the extraction and export of coking coal and other minerals. The dominant role of the mining sector determines its strong dependence on price fluctuations and external demand for mineral resources. Consequently, economic development is characterized by boom-bust cycles. Generally, economic growth peaks during periods of growth and declines along with commodity prices. Mongolia intends to overcome the structural problems of the existing development model through economic diversification, shifting the focus toward higher-value-added mineral products and markets other than China. Effective implementation of industrial policy requires overcoming the infrastructural constraints to expanding mineral extraction and processing. Therefore, railway, energy, and water management projects form the core of the «New Recovery Policy» program. At the same time, regular downturns pose serious challenges to infrastructure investment. Due to another drop in coal prices, the Mongolian government revised its list of priority projects in 2025, retaining only the railway crossings, power plants, and oil refinery under construction. These projects will help reduce coal transportation costs, provide electricity for ore processing, and replace Russian imports with domestically produced fuel. Further overcoming infrastructure constraints and developing mineral processing and non-extractive industries remain key objectives for Mongolia’s economic development. However, their implementation has once again been postponed until the long term.
The Role of the Democratic League of China in the System of Multiparty Cooperation and Public Administration of the PRC in the Modern Period
Maria Yu. Ulyanova
The article is dedicated to a comprehensive analysis of the role of the China Democratic League (CDL, 中国民主同盟, Zhōngguó Mínzhǔ Tóngméng) in the state governance and lawmaking system of the PRC. The research is based on an analysis of statistics regarding the representation of CDL members in government bodies (2012–2024), quantitative indicators of its legislative initiatives and their implementation, and official reports of the CPPCC and the NPC. The transformation of the CDL’s functions in the context of implementing China’s technological sovereignty strategy is examined. The analysis focuses on the CDL’s expert and analytical activities. Through initiatives in traditional spheres (education, science, technology, ecology — 73% of proposals for 2021–2024), the League influences the formation of national policy. 41% of its scientific and technological initiatives are integrated into state programs. However, only 11% of initiatives are adopted unchanged, while 61% require adjustments by the CPC, reflecting the principles of «regulated participation» within the multi-party cooperation system.
The author concludes that the CDL’s political influence is sectoral in nature, concentrated in the spheres of science and education, which are key for China’s technological leadership. The scientific novelty lies in rethinking the role of expert participation in authoritarian systems and verifying the «regulated participation» model, within which the expert role of democratic parties is strictly determined by ideological and institutional frameworks. The practical significance lies in identifying the mechanisms for integrating the intellectual elite into the political system, which improves the quality of government decisions while maintaining CPC control.
Chinese Political Economy Textbooks of the 1950s and Early 1960s: Soviet Influence and National Characteristics
Olga N. Borokh
The article examines the history of the development of sinicized textbooks on political economy against the backdrop of the large-scale borrowing of Soviet textbooks in the early period of the PRC. In the late 1940s — early 1950s, the use of L.A. Leontiev’s textbook in China was combined with attempts to expound the politics of “New Democracy” as characterization of national specifics of the transition to socialism and to incorporate this topic in courses of political economy. Based on primary sources, the article examines the textbooks by Chinese authors that put forward interpretations of “New Democracy”. In the mid-1950s, the political economy textbook prepared by the Institute of Economics of the USSR Academy of Sciences was prevalent in the higher education system of the PRC. By the end of the decade, there was a renewed demand for a national textbook reflecting China’s development issues and the CPC’s economic policies. The critical reading of the Soviet textbook stimulated the accelerated writing of Chinese manuals, which were presented for discussion in 1960. Most of the manuscripts were characterized by one-sided focus on politics to the detriment of the presentation of theory while keeping following the Soviet schemes. The political economy textbook of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences was approved and published in several editions. It is concluded that the explorations of the 1950s and early 1960s helped Chinese economists accumulate experience in theoretical understanding of China’s development problems and create the preconditions for constructing political economy of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Modern Chinese Doctrine of International Law
Viatcheslav V. Gavrilov
The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the modern Chinese doctrine of international law, which is being formed at the junction of the official discourse of the PRC leadership and the academic developments of Chinese scientists and is used by China as an important tool for promoting its national interests on the world stage. The author reveals its genesis, sovereign equality of states and the inadmissibility of interference in internal affairs. Special attention is paid to the question of how China is rethinking the traditional categories of international law — sovereignty, human rights, universal values, and multilateralism — and how this rethinking forms the basis of China’s instrumental approach to existing international legal norms and institutions. The work examines the key elements of the doctrine of international law with Chinese characteristics: the concept of a «community of a common destiny of humanity», initiatives in the field of global development, security, civilizational dialogue and global governance etc. It is shown that using a combination of ideological, normative and institutional dimensions, China seeks not to destroy the existing international legal system, but to gradually modify it from within. The main conclusion is that the Chinese doctrine of international law today acts not only as a theoretical construct, but also as a practical tool for China’s foreign policy, allowing it to flexibly combine the rhetoric of respect for international law with the pragmatic defense of national interests and the formation of a new architecture of the global world order beneficial to China.
From Personal Letters to Working Drawings: New Materials for the Creative Biography of Architect M.M. Oskolkov
Galina V. Efendieva
Svetlana S. Levoshko
This article is devoted to the life and work of architect and engineer Mikhail Matveyevich Oskolkov (1878–1949), a key figure in the architectural development of the Russian Far East and the cultural life of Russian émigrés in Harbin. A unique collection of materials from the Oskolkov family’s personal archive, donated to the Amur State University Centre for the Study of Far Eastern Emigration, is introduced into scientific circulation. Based on iconographic sources (drawings, sketches, photographs) and publications in the Harbin press, the authors recreate the scale of the architect’s personality and creative method. The article traces M.M. Oskolkov’s professional career from his studies at the Nikolaev Engineering Academy in St. Petersburg and his service in Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk to his most fruitful period in Harbin. New archival data clarifies biographical milestones and revises established attributions. The analysis of the master’s temple-building activities occupies a central place in the study. The architect’s main creation was St. Sophia Cathedral in Harbin (1923–1932), built based on a revised design of the Church of the Epiphany on Gutuevsky Island in St. Petersburg by architect V.A. Kosyakov. Based on drawings and evidence from the period, the authors demonstrate the decisive role played by M.M. Oskolkov in the implementation of this project, which became a ‘cultural bridge’ between Russia and China and a spiritual symbol for emigration. In addition to sacred buildings (the chapel-monument to Nicholas II, designs for the Alekseevskaya and Petropavlovskaya churches), the article reveals Oskolkov’s versatility as an urban engineer who created the infrastructure of Harbin and a talented theatre figure (under the pseudonym M. Olgin). The publication of a significant array of visual materials from the archive of the architect’s son, A.M. Oskolkov, allows us to rethink this architect’s contribution to the preservation of Russian cultural tradition in exile and fill in the gaps in the history of Russian architecture abroad.
The “Bone Marrow Washing Classic” and the Tradition of “Internal Achievement” in China
Vladimir V. Maliavin
This publication includes the first translation into a foreign language of the “Bone Marrow Washing Classic”, an important exposition of personal cultivation in China, as well as a preliminary analysis of its content and an assessment of its historical and cultural significance. Tradition attributes the authorship of this work to the founder of the Chan school of Chinese Buddhism Bodhidharma. The author explores the cultural background of this legend and its connection with the peculiarities of the worldview and mentality of traditional China. He draws attention to the new interpretation of the unity of the “three teachings” (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism) in this text: the said unity is guaranteed by practice as the pure beingness of existence. Therefore, things are justified by their alterity, and every change confirms a “return to the source”.
The author concludes that in recent centuries of Chinese history, a special tradition of the so-called “inner achievement” (nei gong) has emerged, which has nourished very different forms of social practice, from hygiene and health gymnastic to meditation and martial arts. The diversity of its manifestations and its inherent atmosphere of mystery, in the absence of an organizational nucleus, accounted for the fact that this tradition, while being the focus of Chinese civilization, remained a poorly understood phenomenon of social life. The very concept of “inner attainment” appeared only by the middle of the 19th century and since then remained quite ambiguous.
Corporate Training in China: A Comprehensive Analysis of Strategies, Programs, and Workforce Adaptation in the Face of Global Challenges
Maria A. Guleva
The People’s Republic of China identifies corporate training as a key tool for developing a highly qualified workforce capable of meeting the challenges of the digital economy and global competition. The strategic approach is based on a symbiosis of state initiatives, such as «Made in China 2025» and the «Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan,» the development of corporate universities, and the scaling of digital platforms. This system aims to ensure continuous professional development throughout an employee’s career.
Despite the rapid market growth, the industry faces systemic challenges. These include the perception of training as a cost rather than an investment, insufficient funding, outdated methodologies, and a lack of needs analysis, leading to low program effectiveness. To overcome these barriers, a public-private partnership model with distinct regional specialization is used, turning cities like Shenzhen and Hangzhou into educational hubs for high-tech industries.
The industry is actively transforming by adopting digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), to create personalized and immersive learning. Leading companies integrate training into business processes, demonstrating a measurable economic impact: increased productivity and retention of key specialists. Ultimately, corporate training in China is evolving from a cost center into a strategic asset, critical for modernizing the nation’s human capital and enhancing its global competitiveness.