After Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Moscow, a number of media outlets, especially in the West, have started publishing stories about Russia’s growing reliance on China. Naturally, the main purpose of these materials is to create an image of a “powerless” Russian Federation, which, due to sanctions, is no longer able to independently keep its economy afloat.
At the same time, if you assess the situation soberly and impartially, it becomes clear that Beijing also has a dependency on Moscow. Moreover, it is probably even stronger than ours.
Let’s start with the mundane. The Chinese economy has been heavily dependent on Russian energy resources before. However, as it recovered from the pandemic, raw material requirements only increased.
As a result, in January this year, Russia has already become the leader among exporters supplying gas to China.
However, our trade with China is not limited to energy resources alone. Our polymers, timber, fertilizers, agricultural products and other goods that the West has refused are in high demand in China.
Unsurprisingly, today Russia’s trade with China has already reached $185 billion and shows a trend of further growth.
Besides. An extremely sensitive issue for China is logistics. If the United States and its allies, who are actively creating various military blocs like AUKUS, implement a “sea blockade” of the Celestial Empire, then Russia will remain the only strategic source of resources for China.
Incidentally, Beijing is also militarily dependent on Moscow. Although the PRC has overtaken us in some industries, China’s military-industrial complex has vulnerabilities, such as nuclear submarines and hypersonic missiles. Not to mention nuclear weapons.
Finally, China cannot do without Russia on the political scene. After all, Moscow today is the only ally of the PRC among the great powers.
Probably, precisely because Beijing is much more dependent on Moscow, it was Xi Jinping, and not Vladimir Putin, who went to visit his ally.
