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Today that possibility seems increasingly remote. Since last October, Suifenhe has conducted more than $130,000 worth of commerce with the nearest Soviet settlement, Pogranichny. "We think that city-to-city trade will help politically," says Deputy Mayor Li Baozhong. "It definitely benefits our people, who welcome a market for their goods and need the things we get from the Russians in return." Suifenhe is building a five-story international trade center in its main square to accommodate an expected increase in the barter transactions. With an eye to export, the town brewery puts Russian- language labels on its Seagull crab-apple juice and Polar Bear beer.
A small number of Soviets in Suifenhe help manage the rail traffic. Vladimir Dudin, 38, lives for days, sometimes weeks, at a time in a converted refrigerator car on a siding at the Suifenhe train station. He has a tiny black-and-white television that is not powerful enough to pick up Soviet broadcasts; he has to settle for such fare as the U.S.-made series Little House on the Prairie dubbed in Chinese.
Officials on both sides agree that the volume of trade along the border has always been inversely proportional to the degree of military tension. Recently "both sides have been trying to improve conditions," says Zhao Zhonghuan, deputy chief of staff for the Heilongjiang Provincial Command. "The Soviets seem to have withdrawn their forces somewhat. They've also cut back on the amount of time that their helicopters are operating along the border. In the past, their aircraft have violated our airspace, and we've lodged formal protests, but there have been no penetrations this year." One of his Soviet counterparts, General Oleg Ilin, confirms that view. "We have reduced our strength in this region and ceased all training maneuvers on the border," he says. Ilin is the No. 2 political officer, or commissar, attached to the Far Eastern military district, which has its headquarters near Khabarovsk, on the banks of the Amur River, another stretch of contested border.
In the 1970s Mao Zedong ordered the urban populations of northern China to "dig tunnels deep and store grain everywhere" in preparation for Soviet nuclear strikes. Now the vast network of tunnels beneath the streets of Harbin is being converted into a subway. Other shelters are already serving as underground hotels and shopping centers. In the meantime, citizens of Khabarovsk pour hot water for their tea not only from traditional Russian samovars but also from colorfully decorated thermos bottles imported from China. Plans are under way for a Chinese restaurant, staffed and supplied from across the river, to open later this year.