Abroad|Power relations
According to Professor Juha Vuori, China has been able to accept many of its own foreign policy slogans in Russia. The balance of power between the countries is clearly on the Chinese side.
From Beijing carried the Winter Olympics under praise and news after the presidents of Russia and China Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met on Friday in concert.
China expressed sympathy for the security guarantees demanded of Russia from the West, according to which the military alliance NATO will no longer be allowed to expand east.
Although the joint statement does not refer directly to Ukraine, the countries accused NATO of a “Cold War mentality”. Russia, for its part, said it supported the one-China policy that Taiwan belongs to China.
Why do countries now appear as supreme friends?
International Professor of Political Science Juha Vuori The University of Tampere estimates that China gained significantly more through its own slogans.
“The common message of the countries includes more Chinese foreign policy terms. Russia has got a small piece of it there, ”Vuori analyzes.
“There is one sentence in the statement from which the interpretation is distorted. It merely states that China sympathizes with Russia’s proposal for statutory security guarantees. So what does that mean? ”
According to the mountain, China can immediately withdraw its sympathy if Russia attacks Ukraine, with which China has important political and economic relations.
“From China’s point of view, that’s one sentence.”
Anyway, China has more dictating power in relations between the two countries because it is stronger than Russia in all areas except nuclear weapons.
“China was the little brother of the Soviet Union and now the little brother is a big giant. The big brother still has energy and weapons, and they are worth it, ”Vuori sums up.
President Xi said the Chinese Global Times that countries intend to “support each other’s sovereignty and security” so that they can better address “external harassment and regional threats.”
In individual matters, Russia and China have many interests that the countries have tried to reconcile. These include China’s New Silk Road project and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union. Both countries also oppose the Aukus Defense Agreement, which involves Australia, Britain and the United States.
Russian news agency According to the cup Putin and Xi agreed on 16 joint projects centered on large natural gas and oil trades. According to the Global Times the new cooperation between the countries is crushing Western leadership, which threatens “global security and stability”.
Territorial integrity is the most important issue for China because of Taiwan, Vuori says.
“If Russia were to attack Ukraine, then it would go against this part. Complete sovereignty is such an integral part of China’s foreign policy. There are potentially spills of sanctions on China as well. ”
On the other hand Russia’s nervous war has an advantage for China. President Barack Obama was a vision to turn the U.S. gaze toward Asia. When Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula in 2014, attention quickly turned back to Europe. President Joe Biden has tried to revive Obama’s vision of China, but now Russia is once again concentrating its troops on the Ukrainian border.
“There is no evidence that China and Russia are playing together,” Vuori points out.
However, the statement states that the Sino-Russian relationship is a “new kind of superpower relationship”. It means, for example, not interfering in another’s affairs and the right of countries to define democracy themselves.
The mountain says China is particularly opposed to the bipolar world order and the “Cold War mentality”. NATO is the product of these two, and that is why China wants to prevent it from expanding.
“From China’s perspective, security guarantees can be justified by the fact that military blocs during the Cold War would not be able to affect Russia’s security. In that sense, it would be completely consistent for China, because China wants to negotiate and not use military force. ”
President Putin received a lot of attention during his visit to Beijing in the absence of Western leaders.
Western countries an extensive diplomatic boycott against the Beijing Winter Olympics, in turn, brought Putin into the spotlight. Without the boycott, Putin’s visit to Beijing might not have received as much attention.
Still, the content of the meeting and the joint statement of the presidents will remain lean, Vuori estimates.
“There could be nothing concrete about a joint statement at that level. It only stated the common interests of China and Russia in a very diverse way. ”
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