In Chinese, the names of most countries are written as they sound, Russia and Belarus are no exception
Russia is 俄罗斯 (Éluósī, also pretty much covering Rus’ due to being so inaccurate) and Belarus is 白俄罗斯 (Bái’éluósī) - don’t ask me why they hear it the way they do, both are written as sounds with no implicit meaning.
EXCEPT
白 (Bái) not only is a sound form of Bela in Chinese, it also means “white”. White Russia, as in the original. It is both.
The rest is actually just gibberish to make it sound vaguely similar.
Here’s a really cool fact though:
In Chinese, the names of most countries are written as they sound, Russia and Belarus are no exception
Russia is 俄罗斯 (Éluósī, also pretty much covering Rus’ due to being so inaccurate) and Belarus is 白俄罗斯 (Bái’éluósī) - don’t ask me why they hear it the way they do, both are written as sounds with no implicit meaning.
EXCEPT
白 (Bái) not only is a sound form of Bela in Chinese, it also means “white”. White Russia, as in the original. It is both.
The rest is actually just gibberish to make it sound vaguely similar.