Current status and trends of social organization's participation between China-Russia's multi-domain cooperation

Introduction

The ever-lasting friendship philosophy and new international relationship principles brought by “the Treaty of good neighbor, friendship and cooperation between China and Russia” are a big breakthrough in international relationship history, its vibrant vitality and model effect should continuously demonstrate under modern international situation. In 2021 China and Russia will seize the opportunity of celebrating the 20th anniversary of the signing of “the Treaty of good neighbor, friendship and cooperation between China and Russia”, which promotes further cooperation in a larger scale, wider domain and deeper level [1]. Scientific and technological innovation is one of the most promising areas of cooperation between China and Russia, which determines the future development of the two countries and affects the improvement of the living standards of two nations’ people [2].

In recent years, the role of social organizations as the third party of social governance is becoming more and more obvious. In the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it pointed out that we should “delegate the focus of social governance down to the grassroots level, social organizations should play an important role, and realize the positive interaction between government governance, social regulation and peoples’ autonomy” [3]. After 2007, Russia has delegated parts of administrative power to social organizations (to formulate industry standards and industry norms) in order to fully exert its role of social governance. It can be said that the practices of social organizations in China and Russia are more and more positive and fruitful.

In fact, in the early days of Sino-Russia non-governmental trade, there were social organizations involved in, but the types of social organizations were very simple, such as chambers of commerce. Moreover, at that time, the participation was only one-way, which means the chambers of commerce of China and Russia only played the function of organization and coordination on one side. Now today's Sino-Russia cooperation has already surpassed the field of economic and trade cooperation and is developing in an all-round way. The types of social organizations participating in it are more diversified, such as chambers of commerce, academies, associations, alliances, etc., and the scope involved is far beyond many fields like economy, culture, science and technology, military and so on. The level of cooperation is wide and deep, which requires the social organizations not only play a self-regulating role but also promote bilateral trust and understanding.

Present ways of social organizations participating in the process of China-Russia cooperation

Social organizations refer to the social group formed by a certain number of social members according to certain norms and those members often share certain goals. In 2019, China has 873,316 social organizations and Russia has 54,533. Although the number of social organizations in China is 16 times of that in Russia, there is no sharp discrepancy between the two countries in terms of population scale. Social organizations have the attribute of international communication. Therefore, there are many cases of social organizations participating in the process of international cooperation; the only difference is the way that they participated in. From which it shows different features and functions. In the process of Sino-Russia cooperation, the ways of social organizations' participation are mainly embodied in "three identities".

1. The identity of organizers. Social organizations are the coalition of international cooperation subjects. On January 24, 2006, the first "China Russia Regional Chamber of Commerce leaders’ summit" was held in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China. It is hoped that through cooperation and communication between non-governmental organizations like various associations, chambers of commerce, economic and trade cooperation can be strengthened and upgraded. During the summit, representatives of chambers of commerce of China and Russia signed the “Harbin declaration” of regional chambers of commerce of China and Russia on the basis of reaching a cognitive consensus. According to the international conventions, the members of the "Sino-Russia Regional Chamber of Commerce" undertake the common responsibility of developing and promoting the bilateral economic and technological cooperation between China and Russia, which are the bridges between the representatives of the business sector of the two sides in the relevant regions and the business sector of the relevant regions [4].

Social organizations are pioneers of international cooperation projects. On November 6, 2007, the establishment Conference of Sino-Russia Chamber of Mechanical and Electrical Commerce was held in Moscow. The meeting approved the documents and work plan for the establishment of the chamber of commerce, and announced the formal establishment of the Sino-Russia Chamber of Mechanical and Electrical Industry as well as the start of various work. After its establishment, the chamber of commerce has effectively integrated the existed economic and trade promotion mechanisms of China and Russia, and has carried out fruitful cooperation with major government departments, financial institutions, member enterprises and local governments in the neighboring regions of the two countries. At the same time, through effective communication between the secretaries of the two countries, the chamber of commerce has promoted communication and cooperation between enterprises of the two countries, which facilitated a number of projects represent the development direction of cooperation between the two countries in electrical ,mechanical and high-tech fields [5]^.

2. The identity of servers. Social organizations provide professional services for international cooperation. On October 12, 2018, in order to strengthen cooperation in the financial field, China and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding led by professional associations of both sides (Association of Financial Self-Disciplined Organizations of the Russian Federation and China Association of Financial Market Investors), marking a new stage of cooperation between China and Russia in the field of international financial market. At present, according to the above agreements, the association of financial self-disciplined organizations of the Russian Federation has established a normalized working relationship with the China Association of financial market investors, providing professional services for the cooperation in the financial field between the two sides, and planning the relevant cooperation in the financial field in different regions within the framework of the agreement consented by the two sides. To be praised, the cooperation between China and Russia based on the mutual understanding and recognition in relevant fields will be gradually deepened [6].

Social organizations provide universal information services for both sides of international cooperation. On January 18, 2019, the alliance of Chinese and Russian local business associations was established in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China. It is a professional platform established to promote the local cooperation between China and Russia. Through this platform, the participants who intend to carry out cooperation between the two sides can obtain important relevant information and messages. In fact, the platform plays an important role in integrating the information, resources and market between Chinese and Russian business associations. To be praised, the establishment of the alliance of Chinese and Russian local business associations has actively promoted the pragmatic cooperation between China and Russia, and will certainly build a broader space for cooperation and create more win-win business opportunities for the development and growth of Chinese and Russian related enterprises [7].

3. The identity of supervisors. Social organizations carry out testing and certification of international cooperation achievements. In 2019, in order to adapt to the deepening process of Sino-Russia cooperation, Chinese domestic Internet plus supervise and examine e-commerce platform, Qianyi Internet and Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry "allied authentication" (SOEX), organized a strategic cooperation agreement on promoting the examination and authentication of import and export products between China and Russia. Among them, the Federation of Industry and Commerce of the Russian Federation "allied authentication" (SOEX) is a subsidiary company of the Russian Chamber Of Industry and Commerce, and is currently the largest independent authentication agency in Russia. Its subordinate branches are numerous (37 branches are distributed in major cities and ports in Russia), with more than 300 professional experts who have more than 10 years of working experience [8].

Social organizations implement audit supervision function on the process of international cooperation. On August 22, 2019, China and Russia signed the "Memorandum of cooperation on accounting standards between China and Russia" and "Memorandum of cooperation on audit supervision between China and Russia", which is a milestone event for China and Russia to carry out cooperation in accounting and audit supervision. It marks that the two countries have formally established a mutually recognized cooperation mechanism in accounting and audit supervision. The signing of this memorandum will provide institutional guarantee and policy convenience for enterprises in various industries of the two countries to realize cross-border bond issuance and interconnection of financial markets. It also provides a new model for China to carry out cross-border cooperation in the field of accounting and auditing supervision with other countries, especially with BRICs countries [9].

To sum up, through the above identities, social organizations have actually participated in the specific process of Sino-Russia cooperation. However, for social organizations, the above three identities cannot explain all the forms of their participation in international cooperation, it can only reflect the participation status at the present stage. Therefore, there are a lot of practice spaces for the participation of social organizations in the process of future cooperation between the two sides.

The characteristics of social organizations participating in the process of Sino-Russia cooperation at the present stage

By combing the ways of social organizations participating in the process of Sino-Russia cooperation at the present stage, we can see that the vertical participation of social organizations in the process of Sino Russian cooperation is not complete, and the horizontal participation is not comprehensive, which leads to the effect of participation cannot be fully played. Therefore, the characteristics of social organizations' participation in the process of Sino-Russia cooperation at the present stage are mainly reflected in "three aspects of deficiency".

Insufficient participation in the whole process. As far as individual cooperation is concerned, the role played by social organizations is not complete. Social organizations are lack of participation in the preliminary argumentation, process supervision and effect evaluation.

By combing the ways of social organizations participating in Sino-Russia cooperation, we can see that the vast majority of participation only limited to the main body of cooperation, cooperation funds and technological support, cooperation achievement appraisal and audit. Social organizations do not participate in the whole process of cooperation, which makes the participation process of social organizations with obvious "fragmentation" characteristics.

In recent years, in order to achieve a breakthrough in the field of economic cooperation, China and Russia have established hundreds of large international cooperation projects. However, the vast majority of these large projects still remains at the level of agreement and cannot be truly implemented. This makes us question the implementation basis of these large international projects. If these large projects only stay at the level of intention, the cooperation between the two sides in the economic field will not be successful. No substantial breakthrough can be achieved [10]. If we study the above problems carefully, we will find that, in fact, these problems are related to the tangible and intangible institutional environment faced by individual social practice. In the process of cooperation between the two sides, the two sides will firstly face with some tangible institutional systems, such as national laws and regulations. In fact, the tangible institutional systems also include industry norms and industry standards etc., which means that we don’t have a complete understanding of tangible institutional environment. In addition, we don't understand the intangible institutional environment faced by individuals, such as values, habits and opinions [11] (Wang Xiangxiu, Wang Yiying, 2020). Just imagine how two unfamiliar social individuals can carry out in-depth cooperation, because in many cases, the views of both sides on the same issue may be very different. In this case, what should we do? We can only make up for these necessary understandings through more extensive contact and comprehension. The most convenient and efficient way is to strengthen the cooperation between all kinds of social organizations of both sides, especially the professional social organizations that can determine the development direction of cooperation, so as to build a necessary and complete operational environment for the cooperation between both sides.

Insufficient participation from all perspective. As far as all-round cooperation is concerned, the absence of social organizations in the process of all-round cooperation between China and Russia is common. The all-round cooperation between China and Russia is oriented to all fields and levels in both countries, which provides a broad space for social organizations to participate in bilateral cooperation. However, the actual participation situation is that there is a lack of participation of social organizations in many fields and at many levels.

No international cooperation should be a hasty decision. Both sides should carry out cooperation based on the concept of constantly deepening cooperation and attracting more practice subjects from both sides to participate in the cooperation. If the cooperation between the two sides at the level of all kinds of social organizations is realized in depth and width, then their individual members have the qualification and possibility to participate in the cooperation, which is bound to provide more feasibility and broad space for the cooperation with two sides. At present, most of the successful cases of Sino-Russia cooperation are "individual cases", and the general mode and path of Sino-Russia cooperation in the same category or industry cannot be summarized. Therefore, the overall quantity of successful cases of Sino-Russia cooperation is not many, which not only affects the depth and width of Sino-Russia cooperation, but also is unfavorable to the further development of the above-mentioned "individual cases" of successful cooperation. Just imagine, on the basis of the establishment of cooperation mechanism between the relevant professional social organizations of both sides. "Individual case" as a point, "based on the point, continuously expand it", which will have a realistic foundation and strong driving force.

Any international cooperation should be based on mutual benefit and win-win results. In order to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of both parties, it is necessary to effectively connect the basic services needed by both parties. For example, overseas enterprises and personnel of both China and Russia will face the problems of abiding by the laws of the host country, industry standards, social responsibility, etc. At present, foreign enterprises or individuals of China and Russia can only seek individual help when they encounter the above problems, and cannot directly and effectively solve the above problems. Just imagine, if the two sides realize the cooperation of relevant professional industry associations and social organizations, the above-mentioned enterprises or individuals can enjoy the same services as the citizens of the host country, and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests anytime and anywhere. In 2018, the first Sino-Russia investment and legal service cooperation pioneer forum, which is also known as awarding ceremony of the legal branch of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce of Russia, was held in the exhibition building of Greenwood Park in Moscow, Russia. The establishment of the law branch of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Russia will certainly call on more lawyers from China and Russia to gather on this platform, strengthen communication and cooperation, complement each other's advantages, and jointly provide close legal services for Chinese enterprises in Russia, so as to ensure the legitimacy and security of their economic activities in Russia [12].

Insufficient participation effectiveness. As far as the effectiveness of participation is concerned, the promotion and pull effectiveness of social organizations in the process of participating in the all-round cooperation between China and Russia is insufficient. Comprehensive participation effectiveness should be embodied in direct economic effectiveness and indirect social effectiveness.

The participation of social organizations can better guarantee the realization of the established economic interests of both parties.

Due to its complete professional categories, social organizations can provide effective contact, service, supervision and other comprehensive services for the whole implementation process of international cooperation, which makes the process of international cooperation more smooth and successful. According to the latest statistics released by the General Administration of Customs of China, although the bilateral trade volume between China and Russia has declined in 2020, it still exceeded the market expectation, surpasses 100 billion US dollars and maintained a high standard of operation. Among them, in 2020, China's imports from Russia has declined, mainly because the price of energy imports dropped significantly, but the amount of energy imports didn’t decline, but increased to some extent [13]. In the future, the cooperation between China and Russia in the field of economy and trade should strive to exceed 200 billion US dollars. These beautiful visions would be successfully realized through the foundation of full cooperation between all sectors of the society of the two countries, among which social organizations are bound to occupy a place.

The participation of social organizations can better improve the social effect caused by cooperation results. The final result of any international cooperation should have a beneficial impact on the development of human society, especially that international cooperation for public welfare, which aim is to further improve the development environment of human society. At present, the cooperation between China and Russia in various fields has made some progress, especially in the fields of environmental protection and disaster salvation. We will find that there are many professional rescue teams that play an important role in the process of cooperation, and its very nature of these professional teams belongs to social organizations. At present, in the process of international cooperation, both sides pay more and more attention to its added value. We should consciously face up to this problem and think more about the healthy development of "people" and "society" when carrying out cooperation in various fields, which plays an irreplaceable role in the smooth progress of cooperation between the two sides.

Conclusion

The new trend of social organizations participating in the process of Sino- Russia cooperation at the present stage

At present, the professional promotion role of social organizations is gradually recognized by all sectors of society in China and Russia, and their participation and performance in bilateral cooperation will be more sufficient, which is mainly embodied in the new trend of "three advantages":

The condition of participation is getting mature. The successful development of any international cooperation needs the understanding and support of the people of both sides. In order to make the people of both sides have a better understanding of the cooperation, on the one hand, the mainstream media of both sides should make more positive propaganda, on the other hand, deploy social forces to analyze and guide. As an important social force, both sides should make good use of all kinds of social organizations. The professional, public-owned and non-official nature of social organizations will make a lot of publicity and analysis easily accepted by the public, especially by its members, which is conducive to reaching effective consensus on the solution of many problems.

At present, the issue of actively guiding all kinds of social organizations to play a positive role has been widely recognized by sectors of society in China and Russia. However, due to the different national situations of China and Russia, there is a certain gap in the operation of social organizations participating in social practice. For Russia, it has developed a relatively complete system for social organizations to participate in social practice; for China, it has been increasing its support for social organizations and actively building an institutional environment for the healthy development and positive practice of social organizations, so that social organizations can better play their role in serving the society [14]. We believe that under the background of the development of comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Russia in the new era, the two countries' cooperation will inevitably touch the problems of social organizations in the process of deepening. Then, it is very necessary and feasible for the two sides to carry out extensive non-governmental cooperation with all kinds of social organizations regarded as the main body and make the international exchanges and cooperation to be the platform. It is bound to make the cooperation between the two countries more accepted by people, and greatly meet the sense of acquisition of the common people. Finally let’s make the sense of acquisition of the people of the two countries and the expectation of further deep integration and formulate two reciprocal aspects.

The new era leads the new journey. The social activities between China and Russia in various fields are increasingly frequent and extensive, especially in culture, education, environment, health and many other humanity fields. The cooperation between the two countries is becoming increasingly popular and beneficial to people, which will further strengthen the mutual recognition, mutual trust and value sharing between the people of China and Russia [15] (Zhao Chuanjun, Xing Yusheng, 2021). Therefore, for all kinds of social organizations, especially academic social organizations and public welfare social organizations, they have a broad space for international cooperation.

The process of participation is getting more complete. With the prominent role of social organizations in participating in international cooperation, social organizations will gradually participate in the whole process of international cooperation. Whether it is vertical participation or horizontal participation, the participation of social organizations will be more positive and comprehensive.

In order to increase the quality of Sino Russian cooperation, we should consciously make up for the absence of social organizations in some process. Especially under the background of all-round cooperation between China and Russia, social organizations should participate in the whole process from the decision of cooperation to the establishment of cooperation projects, and to the implementation of cooperation. Finally, here are a few words about the evaluation of cooperation effectiveness. Because for an effective international cooperation, professional social teams (such as scientific research, survey, law and other professional social organizations) should participate in the early establishment of cooperation. Only in this way can we avoid the blindness of international cooperation between the two sides and provide necessary professional information support for the smooth cooperation between the two sides. The benefits of doing so are as follows. Firstly, professional social organizations such as lawyers association, Accounting Association, enterprise association and foreign languages association can provide professional services for both parties; secondly, due to their inherent social nature, social organizations can effectively reflect the deep (bottom) requirements of both parties; thirdly, due to their public welfare nature, social organizations are in the process of seeking international cooperation, we can pay more attention to the social effects brought by cooperation, rather than make international cooperation simply pursue the maximization of interests [16] (Li Ning, 2021). At present, how to enlarge the social effect of Sino-Russia cooperation is a problem that both sides should pay attention to. The cooperation between China and Russia should not only care about economic benefits, but more about social benefits, because good social effects will, on the contrary, promote the development of bilateral cooperation, otherwise they will hinder it.

The level of participation is getting more professional. In order to guarantee and expand the effectiveness of all-round cooperation between China and Russia, more professionals will participate in the future cooperation.

Professional things will be done by professional experts. The participation of professional social organizations (such as law, chamber of labour, chamber of commerce, economic management and other professional social organizations) will provide professional experts for international cooperation. In the project stage, it is necessary to build the necessary platform for both sides to carry out the practical activities smoothly, and ensure that the cooperation projects are recognized by the relevant fields. In fact, international cooperation is the realization of benefits (economic benefits or social effects) on the basis of effective docking in relevant fields, while connection in relevant fields is the connection of systems, standards and norms, all of which are operated by specific professional experts teams, and the governments of both sides only play a guiding role [17] (Liu Ningran, 2020). Therefore, in the project stage of international cooperation, if there are social organizations in relevant professional fields to participate, then the details of the project agreement will be more accurate, clear, and more operable.

Standards and rules will be certified by professional organizations. In the specific implementation process of bilateral cooperation, there should be the participation of relevant professional social organizations to ensure that the practice process can meet the standards and recognition of relevant fields, and play an irreplaceable role in professional services and social supervision. At present, the cooperation between China and Russia has basically achieved full coverage of fields and regions [18]. Taking the “Sino-Russia cooperation and development plan in the Russian Far East (2018–2024)” signed by the two sides as an example, the agreement provides broad fields and rare opportunities for Chinese and Russian enterprises to carry out cooperation in the Russian Far East. The main fields involved are as follows: logistics (cross-border railway bridge and road bridge transportation projects between China and Russia), tourism (four seasons’ leisure, cross-border tourism projects), aquaculture (aquaculture project), processing (food, agricultural products, aquatic products, natural gas, coking coal, wood, raw materials, etc.), manufacture (shipping project), construction (infrastructure supporting engineering project), etc. [19]. There are many differences between China and Russia in the industry norms and industry standards involved in the above fields. How to realize the effective connection and close cooperation between the two countries in the above fields? We believe that it is necessary for the relevant professional social organizations of the two countries to participate in, build a professional platform for cooperation in relevant fields, and standardize and supervise the standard of cooperation practice between the two countries.

Results and effects will be evaluated by professional institutions. In the final evaluation stage of the cooperation between the two sides, professional social organizations are more needed as the third-party institutions to audit and evaluate the effectiveness of cooperation projects objectively. So, how can we ensure that the project is widely recognized by both sides? In recent years, China and Russia have signed a number of cooperation agreements, but some projects are implemented slowly, and some cooperation is still on paper. This phenomenon is closely related to the lack of participation of professional social organizations, which is worthy of further study.

To sum up, from the perspective of actively expanding international cooperation, China and Russia should strengthen the management and regulation of various social organizations, and make them play an active and effective role in the whole process of implementing international cooperation. Only by recruiting more professionals and people of insight in the process of international cooperation can we ensure the high performance of cooperation. As a community of professionals and people of insight, all kinds of social organizations will play an increasingly important role in the international cooperation. What need to be emphasized is the coronavirus pandemic has formed a global challenge in 2020. China and Russia have intensified close collaboration in the field of medicine. It is of great significance to overcome the negative impact of the pandemic and promote regional economic development [20].