At China’s Siberian Border, a ‘No-Limits’ Partnership Fuels a Cross-Border Trade Boom

Jiamusi, China | Nov. 12, 2026, 3:02 p.m. ET | 3 min read

At the Jiamusi Jichi Tractor Manufacturing Co., workers in hard hats put the finishing touches on shiny red and green tractors moving down the assembly line. Many of the machines are bound for large commercial grain farms in China’s agricultural heartland.

But since 2022, the tractor maker has cultivated a new market.

“Russia is our largest customer abroad,” says Yang Haiyan, the factory’s sales director.

The same holds true for many businesses across Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province, which shares an 1,850-mile border with Russia and has similar terrain and farmland.

From 2021 to 2025, as ties between the two countries deepened, the province’s exports to Russia more than tripled, while imports rose by about 60%. This year, trade has already surged nearly 12%, according to Li Jigang, director of the provincial commerce department.

Ann Scott Tyson/The Christian Science Monitor

Yang Haiyan, sales director at the Jiamusi Jichi Tractor Manufacturing Co. in China’s Heilongjiang Province, says the company’s largest customer abroad is Russia.

New roads, rail crossings, bridges, and energy pipelines have helped drive the increase in commerce. In 2022, shortly after Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a “no limits” partnership, Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, prompting Western sanctions. Since then, the Kremlin has relied more heavily on trade with China, especially as a market for oil and gas exports. In Heilongjiang, imports from Russia make up the bulk of trade.

The province’s frontier towns are key entry points for crude oil, gas, logs, and timber flowing into the rest of China.

In the border city of Heihe, across the river from the Russian metropolis of Blagoveshchensk, an extensive network of twisting pipes marks the start of China’s section of a cross-border gas pipeline. Fully connected in 2024, the 8,000-kilometer pipeline carries natural gas from Siberia through the province and as far south as Shanghai.

Agricultural goods are another major and growing import from Russia.

In Heihe’s pilot free-trade zone, mountains of golden Russian soybeans are inspected before processing. Heihe is boosting trade and local incomes by allowing each Chinese resident living in border areas to import 8,000 yuan (about $1,200) worth of goods from Russia per day tax-free.

Ann Scott Tyson/The Christian Science Monitor

Chinese shoppers visit a Russian products store in Harbin, capital of China’s northeastern province of Heilongjiang. Russian imported goods such as dolls, chocolate, honey and snacks are popular in the province.

Companies pay residents to use their quotas to obtain cheaper, tax-free soybean imports, then process the soybeans for sale.

Heihe officials are seeking to expand the trade program to include frozen chicken feet from Russia, according to a report in the state-run China Daily newspaper.

Suifenhe, another border town in eastern Heilongjiang, has opened an expedited trucking route to Moscow and streamlined the cross-border flow of goods. Mayor Kang Haopeng told the official Xinhua News Agency that inspections and customs clearance now take just 30 seconds, down from 10 minutes a few years ago.

Across Heilongjiang, residents also welcome stores specializing in Russian goods such as traditional nesting dolls, sweets, cookies, and clothing.

At Lin Linqi, a convenience store in the provincial capital of Harbin, Russian toys sell well, but chocolate is the crowd favorite.

“We really like [Russian] chocolate,” says Zhao Qi, an entrepreneur in Harbin. Growing up in a border town near the Suifen River, she could glimpse Russia on the other side of the water. Now, when family members visit nearby Vladivostok, they often bring back crabs and fish.

“Canned beef is quite popular,” too, she adds.

As for Ms. Yang, the tractor factory employee, she prefers Russian honey.

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