It was no coincidence that Russia and China chose to hold the Russian-Chinese Expo in Harbin, a city with long Russian heritage.
Harbin was only a small village when Russian Finance Minister Sergei Witte decided to extend the Trans-Siberian Railroad through Manchuria to the sea, by building the Chinese Eastern Railroad, opening up a new route for Chinese and Asian trade to the European markets. Much of the architecture in the city still retains its Russian character. Harbin is also the home to the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), a key center for China’s aeronautics and aerospace programs, despite U.S. sanctions on some of its defense-related work.
Addressing students at the university, Putin noted its origins as a Russian-Chinese technical school at the time of the railroad expansion a century ago. It has evolved into a major engineering institute. It is now home to the Russian-Chinese Engineering Institute and carries on extensive cooperation with the Bauman Institute of Aviation in Moscow.
“It is a unique bilateral project that gives its participants the opportunity to receive education under generally accepted tuition programmes and teaching methods while splitting their time equally between Russia and the People’s Republic of China,” said Putin.
Putin remarked that students from the Harbin Institute would also be involved in joint Russia-China nuclear programs, as well as joint work on a breeder reactor which the two sides are developing.
