Xi’s erratic Putin problem

This was the week, President Xi, when you could finally see for yourself the validity of the warning we were discussing in our one-way conversation almost three months ago.

It is somewhat ironic (isn’t it?) that, as a strongman ruler who likes being in total control, the perfect position you found for yourself was being just another spectator. You were in control of absolutely nothing that was exploding half a world away, in Ukraine. Yet your global reputation was going to suffer considerable collateral damage.

And that’s where you were able to see precisely the danger I was discussing with you in my Dec. 10 column. I wrote, back then, that you could learn a lot from your next-door neighbor, Vladimir Putin – “not about what to do, but about what not to do.”

Tragically, as you and the whole world watched with disbelieving eyes, Putin launched what was quickly denounced as the largest invasion of a sovereign European country since Adolf Hitler’s Nazis conquered Germany’s neighbors. Putin even stunningly declared he intends to “de-Nazify” Ukraine. (You don’t need a shrink’s certificate on your wall to get inside the Russian president’s head and figure out where Putin’s projection came from. Putin has even told the world he might put Ukrainians who fight Russian invaders in “camps.”) Why? Because Ukraine wants to join NATO and trade with the European Union.

On Feb. 4, the world had watched you and Putin side-byside at the Beijing Winter Olympics, posing in a quickie partnership of political convenience. We all understood the border-politics parallels. Ukraine/Taiwan: two democracies whose people speak the language of a dictatorial motherland they reject.

So you and Putin issued a non-Olympic statement warning NATO not to expand. Never mind that you never mentioned “Ukraine” (because you dare not suggest it might be OK to invade and liberate a sovereign place that could be Taiwan or Hong Kong). So you posed with Putin peacocking beside you to wink-wink make the world think you’ll prop him up if the world sanctions Russia massively after he bombs and blasts Ukraine. And you beamed as he strutted, as if you were all-in on the deal.

Putin’s Thursday speech announcing his Ukraine invasion stunned his Russian true-believers who had fallen for his lies that he wouldn’t invade. (See also: That invasion plan intelligence publicized by President Joe Biden and Europe was just “hysterics.”)

“WAR IN UKRAINE,” bannered Friday’s print-on-paper New York Times. And halfway down the page: “Russians Wake Up to Discover They Really Didn’t Know Putin.” (Yet, Russia has no monopoly on political liars and willfully gullible misbelievers, as Friday’s Washington Post front-page headline reminded us: “GOP leaders part with Trump on praise of Putin.”)

But mainly, what stunned Russians most was the history they will never forget: Their ancestors bravely fought and massively died fighting Hitler’s real, vile Nazis – back when Russians and Americans were allies, fighting and ultimately defeating humanity’s worst. And now Russians realized their European neighbors were right in comparing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine with Hitler’s Nazi invasions. Putin has shamed Russians – and that is something even his faithful should find hard to forget and forgive.

Meanwhile, President Xi, as you seek to show the world that China is the undisputed leader of the global economy, some economic indices already indicate that is statistically true. We all grasp a more practical calculation: Americans’ closets, medicine cabinets, electronics centers and rec rooms are stocked with goods labeled ‘Made in China.”

But time out: President Xi, the world that will never forget Hitler’s evils now will never forgive Putin’s, either. Once you posed in seeming willingness to prop up Putin and his globally sanctioned economy, you risked being doubted and challenged.

Quite possibly, people around the world may soon begin purging their closets, medicine cabinets, rec rooms, work-and-play electronics and business centers of all “Made in China” purchases that suddenly seem morally contraband. Putin, your new best friend who vowed to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, may be of no help to you. Unless you want him to denounce for you all who seek to “de-Chinafy” the world.

But as you ponder whether you should prop up your Stalinized and sanctioned neighbor, ask yourself this:

On this economic eve of your nation’s genuine economic reckoning, do you really think a self-incited gush of global hatred is the way you really want the world to greet you as you seek to lead the global economy in today’s emerging Hot-andCold War era?