The press coverage in the West of China’s relations with Russia has usually been tilted towards the exaggerated concern that Beijing will provide Moscow with weapons that make up the shortfall created by aggression in Ukraine and the stubborn resistance from Kyiv to Russian bombing. The US mass media, seriously disturbed since a bad case of Trump derangement syndrome, has yet to recover from Chinese balloon trauma and the unnerving prospect of mid-western farmland falling into Chinese hands. It fails to see what is staring everyone in the face.
As I have previously noted on the blog, and in the Financial Times, China was never interested in becoming bogged down in a fruitless, one-sided alliance with Russia, which Putin was plotting, as it has its own fish to fry in Asia and elsewhere which require it to keep both hands free to deal with the United States.
What the war has done is to hasten the shift in the balance of economic and political power between Beijing and Moscow in China’s favour. Russia’s ostracism at the United Nations as a result of its brazen breach of the Charter has demonstrated its rapidly declining influence along with its moral authority in the Third World, as also in the West. And US and European sanctions are seriously damaging Russia’s energy sector, as China cannot absorb all the excess gas produced even at cut price sales; so much so that Moscow is desperately trying to boost domestic demand to take up the slack. Sanctions have thus far seriously dented Russian prospects for economic recovery as well as depriving its armaments industry of much needed technology across the board.
Putin used not to be such a gambler. Caution had been his watchword. Some Russians now seriously worry that their country, in the vain pursuit of empire, could well become an international backwater; a minor player at a casino where the Chinese are the bank. Only now is he publicly pushing to renew peace talks over Ukraine which he has disparaged since April 2022, when they were broken off in the hope of something better than a face saving retreat. That is the real significance of a further summit with Xi.
Статья Владимира Путина в “Жэньминь Жибао” “Россия и Китай – партнерство, устремленное в будущее”
Упорно двигаться вперед, к новым перспективам дружбы, сотрудничества и совместного развития Китая и России
Председатель КНР Си Цзиньпин (авторская статья для российских СМИ)
Nezavisimaya gazeta
19.03.2023 20:46:00
Бюджет немирного времени формируется по новым правилам
Казна несет непропорциональные потери при стабильном экспорте нефти
Through Russian Eyes 