Increasing China/Russia higher education cooperation

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of renewed diplomatic relations between China and Russia, Presidents Xi and Putin signed a number of agreements, one to enhance higher education cooperation. Significant cooperation was already underway as evidenced by a 95% increase in the number of Sino/Russian co-authored academic papers from 2013-17. The new agreement establishes a Russian Research Institute at the Beijing Tsinghua University in partnership with Saint Petersburg State University "which will conduct research on Russia-China relations in areas such as industrial development, education, science and technology." Simon Marginson of the University of Oxford indicated that China and Russia were "dancing uneasily together at present, a natural by-product of the deepening rift between the U.S. and China."