Already sent a signal: how the United States can influence China’s position towards Russia

The meeting between Biden and Xi will be indicative / Collage 24 Channel/ EPA/UPG/Getty Images

A meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and American President Joe Biden began in San Francisco. Probably one of the key topics will be the position of the Celestial Empire in relation to Russia.

Obviously, Biden will not directly tell Xi to reconsider his attitude towards Vladimir Putin; this will happen somewhat differently. Political scientist Igor Reiterovich told Channel 24 that the United States has already sent certain signals to China.

A difficult game will begin

“I don’t think that Biden will directly say or ask Xi Jinping to put pressure on Russia. Unfortunately, that’s not how diplomacy works. And the level of personal and political relations between Biden and Xi is not such that we can talk about such things,” the political scientist explained.

Most likely, there will be a complex game and hints, for example, happened a few days ago. Then the American government published a list of Chinese companies trading with Russia. dual-use goods, which may include the military-industrial complex. Consequently, China has heard such a signal from the United States and will soon discuss a solution to this issue.

Hints will be of the following kind: “Look, if you minimize, reduce relations with Russia or gradually push it to end the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible, then we will solve economic problems.” If you put the United States and Russia on the scale in terms of trade, then China will now choose the United States,” Reiterovich explained.

Because there is a large dependence of the Chinese export economy on the US. The leaders of the EU and the West have repeatedly hinted to Beijing that they would be happy to accept China into their markets. However, for this to happen, the Russian-Ukrainian war must be resolved. Since Ukraine is part of Europe, it is difficult to think about expanding cooperation with the Middle Kingdom when there is a war.

The meeting between Biden and Xi will be revealing. However, it is unlikely that the decisions made on China’s position towards Russia will be publicly disclosed. It will be necessary to monitor the indirect facts for weeks or even months.

Xi came to visit the USA

• On Wednesday, November 15, US President Joe Biden met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
• In a statement before the meeting, Biden emphasized the need to maintain channels of communication between the two states. In turn, the Chinese leader emphasized the difficult nature of Beijing's relations with Washington over the past 50 years.
• The last time Biden and Xi Jinping saw each other was on the sidelines of the G20 summit in November 2022, and the Chinese leader has not come to the States for the last four years, primarily due to the coronavirus pandemic.