On the issue of the emergence and expansion of social networks of Chinese border traders: the cases of Heihe and Blagoveshchensk

This article examines the stages, characteristics and influence of the social networks constructed by Chinese border traders in Heihe and Blagoveshchensk. In the early stages of business, Chinese traders can quickly and easily obtain capital, information, market and technologies with the help of their relatives or home fellows. However, in order to pursue longer-term business development and expand the Russian market, they later build more open, flexible, and heterogeneous social relationships based on economic rationality, especially expanding cross-border social networks with the Russian partners. With the increasingly close cooperation between the border people of the two countries, the prosperity and stability of the border between the two countries have been effectively guaranteed, and the social basis of Sino-Russian relations has become more solid.