Siberia Supplies Raw Materials for Beijing

Siberian Wasteland

Quite astonishing that on the Russian side of Siberia there are roughly 6 million people left, but on the Chinese side, the population is blossoming. What gives?

RAW MATERIALS

Reuters: Mirnaya was once a thriving garrison town with a movie theater, a kindergarten and a park. The Soviet army maintained a base here to keep an eye on neighboring China. Then the Soviet Union collapsed and the military left. To survive, those who stayed behind gradually dismantled and sold off what was left, piece by piece. First they removed the windows from the prefabricated buildings where the officers had once lived and sold them in Chita. Then they ripped radiators and pipes from the walls and sold them to scrap dealers, who then sold the metal in China. The buildings now stand like skeletons in the steppes,