CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2) ContEurVIII2 | Page 6

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2)
Notwithstanding the rapidly developing trade relationship between
Armenia and China, Chinese Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in
Armenia have not surged during the same time period.This can be
explained by the fact that South Caucasus region has not been a foreign
policy priority for China, 7 and investment relations with South Caucasus
countries such as Georgia and Azerbaijan have been relatively identical
to that of Armenia. 8 In 1998, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
of China to Armenia mentioned that since its independence, the countries
have developed cooperative and friendly relations and mentioned that
China supports the efforts of Armenia to develop its economy and called
for deepening their commercial relationship. 9
China has seen staggering growth since the adoption of the “open
door” policy in 1987, and within past 30 years it has grown to become the
world’s second-biggest economy, the biggest exporter of goods and
services worldwide, one of biggest destinations of global FDI and one of
the biggest contributors of outward foreign investment. However, China’s
economic, commercial, trade, investment, and even political significance
for Armenia is one of the most overlooked topics in the modern academic
literature regarding law, economics, and social sciences relating to
Armenia. In fact, there is little academic literature discussing Armenia-
China commercial relations, and that which does exist was mainly
published before 2014.
Particularly, in an article published by Chalmyan has discussed the
history of Armenia-China political, economic, and cultural relations
between 1992 to 2007, 10 Sarajyan discusses the level of cooperation
between the countries until 2012 in the context of Sino-Georgia and Sino-
Azerbaijani relations. 11 A dissertation published by Sargsyan discusses the
Sino-Armenian relationship from 1991-2010 in the context of Chinese

7 David
Pipinashvili, "Sino-Russian Geopolitical Interests in Central Asia and South
Caucasus," Bull. Georg. Natl. Acad. Sci 5 no. 2 (2011).
8 See for example a detailed FDI statistics data retrieved from UNCTAD, “Bilateral FDI
Statistics 2014,” Yearbook (2014) (available at
http://unctad.org/Sections/dite_fdistat/docs/webdiaeia2014d3_ARM.pdf (Armenia));
9 Yan Kejun, (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of China to Armenia) speech,
“The International Situation and the Foreign Policy of China,” AUA, May 14, 1998.
10 Noubar Chalemyan, Hay-činakan haraberutyunnerë 1992-2007 t’ t’ (in Armenian),
Armenian-Chinese relations between 1992 and 2007, Banber Yerevani hamalsarani,
130.6 (2010): 25-35,
11 Simon Sarajyan, Hayastan-Činastan. p’astarkner hatuk hamagorçakcutyan ogtin (in
Armenian), Armenia-China: arguments for special cooperation, 21-rd Dar 5(45), (2012):
5-22
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