This article is devoted to the analysis of the problems of teaching spoken Russian as a foreign language in China. With a noticeably increasing number of exchanges between Russia and China, the interest of Chinese students in the Russian language is constantly growing. However, many Chinese students lag behind in mastering speaking skills, which creates obstacles for their future studies and work. The ability to speak is not only an important indicator of the Russian language proficiency level, but the key to building intercultural communication ability. The purpose of the article is to consider the problems of teaching speaking skills to Chinese students and outline the search for optimal ways of improving the effectiveness of teaching Russian as a foreign language in a Chinese audience.