That’s because Petrov, whose legal name is Dong Desheng, lives in his birthplace of Heilongjiang province and is an ethnic Russian, one of China’s 55 officially recognized minority groups.

With bright blue eyes, fair skin and bushy brown hair, Peter Petrov doesn’t look like a typical Chinese man. That’s because Petrov, whose legal name is Dong Desheng, lives in his birthplace of ...