the Chinese leaderXi Jinpingflew to Moscow this week presented by Beijing as Ambassador for Peace in Ukraine.
His summit meeting with the Russian President, Wladimir Putinrevealed his priority remains to strengthen ties with Moscow to deal with what he sees as a longstanding campaign by the United States to stem China’s rise.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a joint statement with Chinese President Xi Jinping after their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow.
Talks on Ukraine have been overshadowed by Xi’s unwavering solidarity with Russia political, diplomatic, economic partner And Military:
two superpowers who have joined forces to counter American dominance and the Western-led world order.
The summit signaled Xi’s intent to cement Beijing’s stance on Moscow amid what he recently described as a US effort.containment“Totally Chinese.
Xi and Putin used the pomp of the three-day state visit, which ended on Wednesday, to signal to their respective audiences and Western capitals that the bond between their two countries remains strong, and in their eyes indispensable13 months after Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine.
The two set out their worldview in a nine-point joint statement that covered everything from Taiwan to climate change to relations with Mongolia, and often portrayed the United States as an obstacle to a better and fairer world.
“It looks like a strategic plan for a decade or even longer.
It’s not a knee-jerk reaction to the war in Ukraine,” said Alexander Korolev, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia who studies Sino-Russian relations.
He highlighted the repeated criticism of the United States in the statement:
“The threat is no longer implicit and hypothetical; it’s very explicit“.
Discussion of China’s somber proposal to end the war in Ukraine only surfaced in the last paragraph of their joint statement, which offered no concrete details on how to proceed.
In a warning to Western countries supporting Ukraine, he declared that any solution to the crisis “avoid the formation of confrontational blocs that “throw oil on the fire”.
Instead, leaders discussed plans to improve economic cooperation and attract more Chinese investors to Russia.
They expressed admiration for each other’s authoritarian regimes, and Xi went so far as to back Putin for another term and signal to the Russians that he was sure they should support Putin in the elections a year from now.
“Xi Jinping started Putin’s re-election campaign,” said Maria Repnikova, a professor at Georgia State University who studies political communications in China and Russia.
“It seems to be an important sign that underscores the extent of their friendship and that they genuinely support Putin.”
But while Xi wanted to show China’s commitment to Russia, he did not sign a blank check in support of Putin.
Although Putin claimed that a new pipeline to deliver natural gas to China would be completed by 2030, Xi said did not confirm the deal.
China has also calibrated the language used to describe its relationship with Russia.
When Xi and Putin issued a joint statement three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine last year, they said Beijing and Moscow had a “boundless friendship“.
This time they tried draw clearer boundaries, and declare that they do not maintain a traditional political and military alliance. Xi and other Chinese officials have also generally avoided reviving such “unbounded friendship” rhetoric, even as Putin continued to use it.
Still, the token support Xi and Putin have offered each other will have its own merit for each leader, said Repnikova, the Georgia State University fellow.
He pointed out that the two countries’ main state broadcasters had also signed a sharing agreement historical content, which underscores their common interest in inoculating their population against Western political influences.
“It is a sign that, although limited, it is still a very important partnership:
China is not alone in facing the West, and Russia certainly has China’s support,” he said.
Xi and Putin media officials have portrayed their relationship as a brotherly bond, cemented over vodka shots, birthday cake and ice cream during more than 40 meetings.
But Xi’s calculation on Russia isn’t based on sentiment.
It is based on the Strategic calculations broader China, which are likely to remain unchanged regardless of the outcome of the upcoming spring fighting in Ukraine.
In Xi’s view, expressed recently in unusually blunt terms, the United States is engaged in “total containment, encirclement, and suppression of China,” a campaign of sanctions and diplomatic pressure that he says is presenting the country with “serious, unprecedented challenges.” asked.
To counter Western pressure, Xi wants to give Putin the political and economic support his partnership deserves, even as China refuses to interfere in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Xi is making a significant gesture of political support for Putin with this trip, essentially showing that the relationship will be resilient even under these strained circumstances and that he is willing to live with the shame of the West,” said Andrew Small, who Author of No Limits: The Inside Story of China’s War With the West.
Beijing had hinted that Xi would help promote Russia-Ukraine talks as part of his visit, after Western powers urged China to use its influence over Russia to end the war.
But in the end, Small said, “There was even simulate less of the “peace mission” as Chinese diplomats had previously reported”.
The visit of the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishidathis week to Kiev in support of Ukraine, coinciding with Xi’s talks with Putin, seems to deepen the Chinese view that the war has become a war global warfare also aimed at Beijing.
Strong ties with Russia have become increasingly important to China as its relationship with the United States has deteriorated.
A series of events since last year seem to have reinforced this mistrust from Xi to Washington even as he tried to stabilize his ties with President Joe Biden.
Chinese officials have pointed to US restrictions on China’s access to advanced semiconductors needed for everything from supercomputing to weapons development.
They have also condemned the US and UK aid initiatives Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines to counter China’s military growth.
Upon completion of Xi’s state visit, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gangreleased a statement about its importance, stating:
“The main contradiction in today’s world is not the so-called ‘confrontation between democracy and authoritarianism’ interpreted by a handful of countries, but the struggle between them development and development containment“.
“Beijing seeks to emphasize to a largely domestic audience that the United States is engaging in a cross-sectoral, multi-directional, and cross-stakes effort to actively prevent China’s further rise,” said Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center of Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Xi’s term “comprehensive containment” is intended to “summarize an effort to curb Chinese growth block your access to technology be modern and undermine China’s relations with neighboring countries,” Blanchette said.
According to this worldview, Ukraine was not the victim of a war unprovoked by Russia, but instead found itself caught up in a proxy struggle by the United States and its allies against Moscow — and by extension, Beijing — aimed at asserting dominance over the Cup
This theme is reflected in many recent assessments of the conflict by Chinese state institutes and analysts from the People’s Liberation Army.
“The outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine was the inevitable result of the US administration’s long-term strategy,” wrote Yang Guanghai, a professor at China’s National University of Defense Technology, in a recent study of the war.
“The position of the United States, Ukraine as proxy it will not change.
Like Russia, China is a priority target of the US “great power competition” strategy.
As such, Xi’s willingness to try to mediate between Kyiv and Moscow is likely to remain severely limited by his broader engagement Stay close to Russia and Putin.
Next Steps
After his meeting with Putin, Xi may contact Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
It would be Xi’s first call to the leader since the invasion began. Even if this is the case, the peace proposal outlined by China is unlikely to win Kiev’s favor as it implicitly reflects official Russian grievances towards NATO that could limit Ukraine’s claims.
In their joint statement, Xi and Putin criticized NATO’s efforts to pay more attention to Asia.
The leaders highlighted that China-Russia relations are superior to traditional Western military blocs because they are “mature, stable, independent and resilient.”
The official Chinese news agency xinhuapublished an article explaining why the two countries did not want to form a formal alliance that would force them to help each other in wars.
Some readers were not convinced.
“We are not allies in name only,” one reader commented.
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