Introduction. We can confidently say already that in the current conditions of global economic development, China is the most important and priority partner in the development of our country’s foreign economic activity. Theoretical analysis. The development of a strategic approach to bilateral economic cooperation with China is the most relevant in the modern system of coordinates of Russia’s foreign economic activity. Nowadays China is really the most important and priority partner in the issues related to the development of our country’s foreign economic activity. There have been different stages in the history of relations between Russia and China, but their current state gives hope for even greater mutually beneficial effect in the strategic perspective. The need to study the formation, transformation and development of Russian-Chinese relations in the context of foreign economic relations and projects is due to the growing influence of China in Russia over the past four years, the cooling of relations between Russia and the West after the events of 2014 and the Russian “turn to the East”. Empirical analysis. Speaking about the effectiveness of foreign trade relations between Russia and China in 2019, it should be noted that Russia’s trade turnover with China in 2019 increased by 3.4% to $110.76 billion, including Russia’s exports to China increased by 3.2% to $61.05 billion, imports from China to Russia increased by 3.6% to $49.7 billion. In comparison, the trade turnover between China and the United States fell by 14.6% to $541.22 billion againist the background of a trade war between these countries. It amounted to USD 541.22 billion, with USD 418 billion coming from China to America. Results. The prerequisites and factors for further development of relations and deepening of trade and economic cooperation between Russia and China have recently been growing. In addition to classical factors: geographical, territorial and, consequently, common border, which allows the development of new forms of cooperation and business (cross-border trade, cross-border economic zones and clusters, interbank settlements in national currencies in border areas, etc.). Political factors are increasing, as well as the impact of modern world economic trends on deepening bilateral economic relations between the countries. However, it is important to remember that in today’s realities Russia needs China more than China needs Russia.