Teaching Russian in China: history and problems

China and Russia are strategic partners that have achieved great success in many political, economic and cultural aspects. Language plays an extremely important role in relations between two countries. However, there are a number of difficulties and unresolved issues in the field of studying the Russian language in China. The study of the Russian language in China began in the 18th century. Over the past centuries, organizational forms have developed and rich practical experience in teaching Russian has been accumulated. However, there are still problems in this area of professional education. The level of language training of specialists in China does not meet modern requirements. The purpose of the article is to identify the problems in Russian language teaching and to find the ways to solve them. The authors identified the groups of problems in Russian language teaching in China. They are low professional skills of Russian language specialists; problems in the field of organizational and methodical support of teaching; low level of preparedness, motivation and initiative of students; problems associated with the use of digital technologies in teaching. The authors developed the recommendations to solve the selected groups of problems and to improve teaching of the Russian language in China.