Little by little, the true purpose of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pompously staged visit to Vladimir Putin is emerging: exploiting Russia’s weakness to turn it into China’s resource colony and enshrining lasting dependency in contracts.
The much-heralded peace initiative in the Ukraine war is increasingly turning out to be a camouflage. Its central points are platitudes and lip service with no real value.
Does China mean the principle of “territorial integrity” that it invokes? By then Xi should have spelled out or at least hinted at one of his appearances what that means: the withdrawal of all Russian troops from all parts of Ukrainian territory.
A “mediator” without contact to Zelenskyj
Second, there is little evidence so far that Xi plans to visit Kyiv as well. That’s what Prime Minister Kishida did. Xi has not even had time for a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A “mediator” who does not contact both parties to the conflict?
Even if that were to happen on Wednesday or Thursday, what offer could Xi make after the visit to Moscow that even remotely matches Beijing’s “position paper” for a negotiated settlement?
China soberly calculates that there is currently virtually no overlap between Russian and Ukrainian ideas, the Economist analyzes. The pose of the “mediator” serves above all to polish Beijing’s image as a potential international regulatory power. And as an allegedly “neutral” alternative to an America that supports the attacked Ukraine, i.e. is a “party”.
Xi makes Putin a vassal by treaty
The contracts signed by Xi and Putin speak a different language. China supports Russia. Beijing also wants to prevent the war from ending with Moscow’s defeat. Because a military victory in Ukraine would be understood globally as a success of the West in enforcing the existing world order. An order that China wants to change to its advantage.
However, Xi does not support Putin as an equal partner, but makes him a dependent vassal. Oil and gas that Russia can’t get rid of in the West now has to sell to perpetually energy-hungry China at lower prices than it previously fetched in the West.
The Kremlin supplies China with raw materials at dumping prices and, conversely, makes itself dependent on Beijing for consumer and high-tech goods. Russia’s servers will come from Huawei. The renminbi becomes its trading currency.
Germany and Europe would be well advised to view the rapprochement in realpolitik and to curb emotions: both the longing hopes of imminent mediation by Beijing and the fears of a fearsome alliance between China and Russia that the West can count on as a countervailing power .
This is an alliance of two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council who do not use their power to enforce the UN Charter but to make the breach of international law permanent. When looking at the content and duration of the contracts, climate protectors should also realize that China, already by far the biggest climate killer, has no intention of getting out of fossil fuels. It will continue to increase its CO2 emissions for decades instead of reducing them.
Xi and Putin are not green, are not “dear friends”. They form an alliance of convenience that obeys the interests and dependencies of the moment. And that the Russians’ already low level of sympathy for the Chinese will hardly increase if it becomes obvious how Putin sold off their country.
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Source: Tagesspiegel
I work as a news website author and mostly cover the opinion section. I have been writing since I was a teenager, and have always enjoyed telling stories. I studied journalism at university and loved every minute of it. After graduating, I decided to move to London and take up a position with a Global Happenings. It has been an incredible experience, learning about all sorts of different cultures and meeting some amazing people. My goal is to continue learning and growing in my career so that I can provide readers with the best possible content.
