Beijing and Moscow cement new alliance against ‘tyranny’
China has agreed to strengthen its strategic partnership with Russia, presenting a united “dual opposition” to the West, which it has accused of “Cold War thinking” and bullying.
At a meeting in Beijing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi promised mutual support, in one of their strongest shows of friendship since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Their meeting came as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida travelled to the United States for a summit with President Joe Biden yesterday, and marked a further hardening of the great power blocs as they face off in Europe and the Pacific.
“Beijing and Moscow will continue to strengthen strategic co-operation on the world stage and provide each other with strong support,” Wang said, according to Russian state media.
“China and Russia must take a clear-cut stand on the side of historical progress, on the side of fairness and justice: oppose all acts of hegemony, tyranny and bullying; oppose Cold War thinking and separatist provocations; and actively push for the construction of a common future for all humankind.”
Lavrov said Russia was “comprehensively grateful to our Chinese friends for this support”.
The warmth of the meeting seemed to quell any lingering doubts about Chinese support for Russia.
A few weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met in Beijing and declared a friendship with “no limits”. When the invasion came three weeks later, Beijing gave the appearance of being caught off guard.
China’s long-established policy is to insist on the inviolability of domestic sovereignty, a means of deflecting criticism of its suppression of independence movements in Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It is difficult to reconcile this with approval of Putin’s decision to invade a sovereign country recognised by China.
After the war began, China refused to condemn or sanction Russia, but stopped short of expressing outright support for Moscow, and called for peace.
Whatever qualms Xi may have had then have clearly been soothed by the progress of the war, which has distracted Nato countries, drained them of military resources, and left Putin in a position of needy supplication.
Sanctioned by many Western countries, Moscow is increasingly turning to China, putting Beijing in a position to set its own terms. Trade between Russia and China increased by more than a quarter last year to a record US$240 billion, and Chinese exports to Russia went up by 47%.
China denies supplying weapons to Russia, but its trade in other goods relieves the pressure of sanctions.
Janet Yellen, the US Treasury secretary, who returned on Tuesday from a visit to Beijing, warned Chinese officials of “consequences” for supporting the Russian armed forces. The implicit threat of secondary sanctions against Chinese companies selling to Russia has clearly been identified by Lavrov as a possible focus for deeper solidarity.
Biden and Kishida were to discuss the possibility of Japanese membership of Aukus, an agreement between Australia, Britain and the US to provide nuclear submarines to the Royal Australian Navy. China regards this as the seeds of an “Asian Nato” – an effort to contain its ambitions as a regional power.
Lavrov hinted at the creation of a new organisation to counter it, and spoke approvingly of a slogan proposed by Wang – “dual opposition to dual deterrence”.
Dual deterrence is the long-standing US policy on the self-ruling island of Taiwan. It discourages moves towards independence but also opposes Chinese threats to invade.
“Our leaders ... have repeatedly underscored the resolve on the part of Russia and China to counter attempts at putting brakes on efforts to build a multi-polar world order or the long-overdue processes of democratisation and justice,” Lavrov said.