China’s Red Carpet for Putin
China’s Red Carpet for Putin: Xi and Putin Will Remain Friends Together. Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing. Let’s work together for a new world order. Anyone who thought the relationship between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping was on the brink of collapse should think again.
Reiterating that they are great friends, a two-day visit is underway in the Chinese capital, where the Russian president was warmly welcomed by Xi in the Great Hall of the People, thanks to the cameras.
The Chinese leader spoke of the formalization of strategic relations between the two countries in a joint statement signed during a ceremony in the afternoon, adding that this agreement provides a strong impetus for the development of their relations.
This meeting, the forty-third between the two countries and the first foreign trip since Putin’s swearing-in for a new term as Russia’s president, takes place as Russian forces advance on the Kharkiv route towards eastern Ukraine, due to delays in European and American aid deliveries to Kyiv, while Russia’s economy and defense system show significant resistance to Western sanctions.
A situation that many American officials attribute to China’s support, which Beijing denies.
In a joint press conference, Xi and Putin said their countries have agreed on a political solution to the war in Ukraine, and Beijing hopes to see a swift restoration of peace and stability in Europe. Xi Jinping said the development of relations between the two countries contributes to peace, stability, and prosperity in the region and the world and called for a two-state solution to the conflict in the Middle East.
Give and Take
But on what basis is the friendship between the two countries, which Chinese diplomats have repeatedly defined as a partnership while emphasizing that it is not an alliance? One thing is certain: although other countries have supported Russia over the past two years, Beijing has been a lifeline for Putin, with its economy becoming increasingly dependent on Beijing.
Today, with nearly 20% of oil imports to China, Moscow has surpassed Saudi Arabia as the largest supplier of crude oil to the country, while overall trade between the two countries has increased by 26% between 2022 and 2023.
That’s not the whole story; their cooperation is comprehensive, extending to the military and defense sectors as well. The Russian and Chinese armies are training together more and more, and Beijing is quickly becoming the main supplier of essential dual-use technologies for Russia’s defense industries.
The Financial Times writes that between 2021 and 2023, China’s semiconductor exports to Russia nearly doubled, and exports of chip-making machinery and artillery also increased. Officially, Beijing continues to reiterate its neutrality in the Ukraine conflict and seems remarkably reluctant to invest in new pipelines that would deliver gas that Moscow can no longer sell to Europe to the east.
However, the figures speak for themselves: since March 2023, the date of the last direct meeting between Xi and Putin, more than one in two important military components imported by the Russians have come from China.
Uneven Relationship
If trade data confirms U.S. claims that China is indeed supporting Russia’s war machine and economy, it will demonstrate that the relationship between Beijing and Moscow is completely asymmetric, with dependence on Beijing highlighting Putin’s growing weakness.
Although both countries are indeed governed by authoritarian regimes deeply linked to the myth of historical greatness and united over competition with the United States, economically, Russia is one-tenth the size of China and needs Beijing more than reality suggests.
China is an essential export market for Russia, and besides being vital for its industry, it allows Moscow to refute the Western narrative of being internationally isolated. Additionally, China and Russia share a border over 4,000 kilometers long, the longest in the world, making jeopardizing good neighborly relations impossible. However, Xi does not want to be dragged into a confrontation with NATO by Putin and fears being subjected to secondary sanctions from the United States and the European Union.
In short, the Chinese leader knows that in relation to Moscow, he must act cautiously and maintain the upper hand, as he is guided by pragmatism rather than necessity.
The differences in today’s visit reports from the respective media illustrate this well. While the Russians celebrate great friendship with enthusiastic tones, in the Chinese media, these news stories have subtly vanished.
Prophets of a New Order
However, it is wrong to think that the bond between the two countries is solely based on economic conditions or temporary circumstances.
Moscow and Beijing see each other as partners that do not threaten their respective domestic stability and share a similar worldview. Most importantly, they agree on the need to create a new international order to replace the current one, which they believe is built on Western interests and strips them of their roles as major global powers.
President Putin today reiterated this clearly in Tiananmen Square after a warm handshake with his host. Russia and China are collaborating to create a fairer global order based on international law and the balance of interests of all countries. According to the Russian president, this new order should be based on the central role of the United Nations and the Security Council, grounded in international law, culture, and civilization, ensuring the balance of interests of all members of the international community.
Putin emphasized that the cooperation between Russia and China is not against any other power and is a stabilizing factor for the world.
According to Philip Ivanov, deliberately and through the convergence of circumstances, Moscow and Beijing seek to create a multipolar world where power is dispersed, and its main feature is the reduction of U.S. power.
In the end, it seems that after being in Europe last week, Xi Jinping is hosting Putin in Beijing, clarifying what China’s preferential relations are today. The unlimited friendship declared in 2022, shortly before the attack on Ukraine, is confirmed by the desire to question the current international system centered on the United States and the West in favor of greater centrality for BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The concern of the two leaders is to protect economic relations from Western sanctions during the period of U.S. tariffs on Chinese products. Overall, the push is towards reforming the international system to end the unipolarity established after the end of the Cold War, a goal that keeps Russia and China united despite existing differences and will intensify due to the economic imbalance between the two and Moscow’s increasing dependence on Beijing in the future.
