After the start of its special operation, Russia had to accept the status of “junior partner” of China. Moscow depends on Chinese buyers of natural resources and the market for high-tech goods, in an uncomfortable historical shift that could lead to uncomfortable new dynamics.
The publication recalled the visit to Beijing of the most senior Russian official who has visited the country since the start of the special operation, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who led the delegation of business elite from the Federation of Russia.
Mishustin told Chinese Premier Li Qiang that relations between Russia and China were at an unprecedented level, noting the countries’ mutual interest in responding to “pressure from the collective West”. In a meeting with Mishustin, Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed common geopolitical projects, including integrating countries and neighbors into a “big regional market”.
This came after the G7 summit, where the United States and a number of its allies announced China’s record for “economic coercion” on the world stage, as well as its aggressive actions at sea of southern China and the Taiwan Strait. Chinese officials and analysts openly warn against “NATOization” of the Asia-Pacific region.
Lyle Goldstein, China and Russia expert at the Defense Priorities think tank, noted that NATO’s policy in Asia “fuels possible Chinese paranoia and serves Russia’s agenda to bring the two countries closer together. “.
The publication notes that as Moscow, pinched by Western sanctions, seeks to justify its “limitless” friendship with Beijing, officials and analysts in China are calling the ties between the two countries a lesser alliance. This is also demonstrated by the fact that even during the Ukrainian conflict, Beijing actually keeps Russia at bay – no weapons are sent to Moscow to support the exhausted military machine.
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