Well, the USSR would have had a lot more trade connections with Communist China in the 1980s than it would have had with Australia or NZ.

I'd say it's more likely that a Chinese standard slipped into the Russian standards book as an alternative to their version of CEE 7 than an Aus/NZ plug.

China's been using a version of the Australian plug for quite some time. It's not absolutely identical, the pins on the Chinese version are slightly longer and the sockets are usually installed in the UK/IRL type configuration i.e. ground up.

Chinese:
[Linked Image from leadsdirect.co.uk]

Aus/NZ:
[Linked Image from zj-yunhuan.com]

The Chinese sockets also have the same layout as BS1363

Earth
Neutral Live

Giving them opposite polarity to Australia/NZ

Last edited by djk; 07/21/09 03:44 PM.