[The Epoch Times, December 30, 2022](Comprehensive report by Epoch Times reporter Li Yan) Putin and Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping held a video conference on Friday (December 30). As the Russia-Ukraine war continues, China and Russia are increasingly isolated in the international community, and the “partnership” between the two countries has attracted much attention.
In a video call, Putin said Russia-China relations were at their “best in history” and that their strategic partnership was a “stabilizing factor” amid rising geopolitical tensions. He said Russia sought to strengthen military cooperation with China and invited Xi to visit Moscow next spring.
Xi thanked Putin for his congratulatory message after the Communist Party’s 20th National Congress in October, congratulating him on his unprecedented third term in office. Xi said China was ready to expand its “strategic partnership” with Russia at any time.
The year-end call, the first since Xi and Putin met in Uzbekistan in September, underscored Moscow’s growing dependence on Beijing, Bloomberg reported. Putin called Xi a “dear friend,” and Chinese leaders responded similarly.
At the beginning of this year, when President Xi met in Beijing, he announced the establishment of an “unlimited cooperation” partnership to challenge the United States. A few weeks later, Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine, for which he was sanctioned by the West. The CCP’s ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, hastily clarified that there is still a “bottom line” in the relationship between the two countries.
However, Beijing has refused to publicly condemn the war, instead accusing the US of provoking Russia by pushing to expand the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Russia-Ukraine War Tests Sino-Russian Partnership
With an economy hit by unprecedented sanctions from the United States, Europe and its allies since Russia launched its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow is increasingly shifting imports, including oil, to China.
Globally, Russia’s imports are down about 19% this year compared with 2021, and total exports are down nearly 16%, according to the International Monetary Fund. In contrast, in the first nine months of 2022, Russia’s exports to China soared by 23% compared with the same period of the previous year.
But with no end in sight to the Ukrainian conflict, Xi has gestured to distance himself from Putin. Beijing has so far refrained from providing material support to Moscow’s war effort, citing the risk of secondary sanctions, while saying the crisis should be resolved through dialogue.
At the same time, subtle changes are taking place in the two sides’ statements on the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war. After Xi and Putin’s phone call in June, the Kremlin suggested that the Chinese leader endorsed Putin’s rationale for invading Ukraine, while a Beijing press release emphasized Xi’s promotion of “world peace and the stability of the global economic order,” without mentioning any military technology cooperate.
In September, Putin himself made a rare admission that Beijing had expressed “doubts” and “concerns” about the war in Ukraine when he met Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a multilateral summit in Uzbekistan.
CNN reported that in the following weeks, Chinese Communist Party officials and diplomats, including Xi Jinping himself, expressed their views unanimously against the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. The stance underscores the red lines China has drawn for “partnerships” without completely abandoning Russia.
China signed a communiqué at last month’s G20 summit in Bali saying “a majority of members strongly condemn the war in Ukraine”.
Moreover, when Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden met at the G20 summit, the two jointly criticized the Kremlin’s nuclear war threats on Ukraine.
Expert: The Russia-Ukraine War Isolates the CCP
The conflict in Ukraine has lasted for more than 10 months. Putin’s so-called “special military operation” has not yielded the swift victory expected, but has suffered a string of setbacks on the battlefield, including a lack of basic equipment. The Ukrainian army, which has been stubbornly resisting the aggression, reversed the war situation in October, from passive defense to active offense, and continued to recover the lost ground occupied by the Russian army.
“China (the CCP) desires (the war) to end.” Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank, told CNN.
“Xi Jinping will try to emphasize to Putin the importance of peace,” she added. “With Russia impatient with the lack of progress on the battlefield, in China’s view, the time is ripe for peace talks.”
Xi still needs Putin’s support on China’s claims to Taiwan and other issues of Beijing’s conflict with the U.S. and Europe, Bloomberg reported.
At their meeting in September, Putin praised Xi for his “balanced” stance on the Ukraine war, while also reiterating Moscow’s support for Beijing’s claim to Taiwan as part of its “one China” principle. The CCP vows to regain Taiwan, and does not rule out the use of powerlessness.
Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, told CNN that the CCP is also increasingly isolated in its stance on Russia.
He pointed to the hardening of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stance on the Russian war as evidence of this.
India, a Russian ally, has not directly condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. But Modi told Putin in September that now was not the time for war and urged him to move towards peace.
Wu said the shift meant China was now more isolated in its relationship with Russia, another reason Xi was keen to see a quick resolution to the problem.
Responsible editor: Lin Yan#