The terrorist missile attack against Ukraine shook the whole world. An instant reaction to the Kremlin's actions was not long in coming not only from the West, but also quite unexpectedly from the East. Russia's ancient partner, China, which usually takes the most neutral position, for the first time publicly condemned the actions of the Putin regime.
China is gradually distancing itself from Russia, although it has not yet spoken about it directly. However, it becomes obvious that the Kremlin is no longer a real ally of China in its confrontation with the West.
China condemned Russia's “missile attack” in Ukraine
Chinese Foreign Ministry Speaker Mao Ning expressed concern about the missile attacks against Ukraine and stressed that all countries deserve respect for their territorial integrity and sovereignty, and once again voiced China's position regarding the search for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
At first glance, nothing seems to have changed in China's position, because at the official level, Beijing still declared support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and at the same time withheld or voted against all UN resolutions aimed against Russia, in order to maintain positive diplomatic relations with Moscow .
Putin is burying relations with China with his own hands
This time, Vladimir Putin, in a ridiculous attempt to play on the emotions of his nuclear electorate, opened a window for China to public criticism. Indeed, a few hours after the rocket attack, Putin himself admitted that the targets of this attack were precisely objects of critical civilian infrastructure. That is, a terrorist organization sitting in the Kremlin claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack.
It should be noted that in all past accusations of murder of civil and war crimes, the Kremlin denied its guilt and directly stated, that these are all inventions and provocations of NATO and the United States. China responded with tacit consent, because it fit into the concept of confrontation between Beijing and the West.
This time Putin crossed a certain red line. By deliberately escalating, he also broke his promise to Xi Jinping at the SCO summit about finding a peaceful solution to this war.
Putin's false promises in Samarkand< /h2>
On September 15, Vladimir Putin went to Uzbekistan for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. In Samarkand, he met with his closest eastern partners today – Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The leaders of the two countries gave Putin direct signals that the war in Ukraine should be ended as soon as possible, because digging Russia deeper into US sanctions could also damage the economies of these two countries, which are now the main consumers of Russian energy resources.
Narendra Modi expressed his position publicly during a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin. Instead, Xi made his remarks about the war in Ukraine behind the scenes, but later Putin himself voiced and confirmed China's position regarding the speedy “settlement of the conflict.”
Putin continues to burn all the bridges for a retreat
A month later, Vladimir Putin not only does not achieve a significant result in resolving the war, but only continues to escalate. First, he announces the annexation of the occupied territories, although Ukraine warned that this would close any opportunity for negotiations with Russia.
And after the continued failures of his army in all sectors of the front, the bloody dictator takes open terrorist actions against the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine. Ukraine failed, as well as to intimidate society. The West also did not “fall on its knees” with pleas for negotiations.
The only thing the Kremlin has been able to achieve is a bloody feast on all propaganda channels and in the Russian segment of social networks. In all other areas, Putin, as always, achieved negative growth, that is, the opposite results, and then even admitted it directly.
China is beginning to see the problem precisely in Putin
This was the obvious signal for Beijing that The Kremlin, by its actions, is beginning to work against the interests of China. The West was the only front to condemn the missile attack against Ukraine. At the same time, the rhetoric of Europe and the United States has become so aggravated that one small step remains before the official recognition of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
China sees this as a direct threat to its interests, because if Russia receives the status of a terrorist state, any financial transactions with such a country will be subject to sanctions. Yes, China will still be able to find certain ways to purchase Russian energy resources, but this process will be much more complicated and expensive. Especially against the backdrop of public statements about the joint construction of the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline.
At the same time, the creator of these problems is now obvious to Beijing – Vladimir Putin personally took responsibility for these attacks, albeit with a slight side note Russian Ministry of Defense. Obviously, China has long seen the problem in Putin, so no congratulations were made from Beijing on his birthday. .
But no matter how the position of China in relation to Russia changes, one should not get carried away, albeit partial, but by a change in rhetoric. To maintain its own stability, China is ready to push through “peace” between Russia and Ukraine on any terms. Freezing the war also looks like an acceptable condition for Beijing to further de-escalate.
Notethat China does not officially recognize the occupation of Ukrainian lands only for the reason that it has its own territorial conflict in Taiwan, and direct playing along with the Kremlin in its occupational intentions would give the United States the full moral right to openly support the independence of Taiwan, and not just preserve democracy there as part of one China.
At the same time, Beijing is reservedly opposed to increasing military supplies to Ukraine, because it directly accuses the West of provoking Russia to war. And it is precisely the “pumping” of Ukraine with Western weapons that is one of these provocative factors.
This also fits into China's view of the issue of Taiwan, where the United States is transferring weapons to protect against a possible attack from the mainland.
The person of Vladimir Putin is becoming more toxic every day, and the guilt of the Russian dictator in many world problems is becoming obvious even to Russia's partners in Beijing. Despite this, it is beneficial for China to preserve the Russian system, that is, the so-called “Putinism”, even with the replacement of its founder and primary source – the Russian president himself.
It is obvious to everyone that Putinism as such has been systematically weakening for many years Russian state. Corruption at all levels, failure in the war and the actual vassalage of Russia completely satisfies China.
Pay attention!China has a long border line with Russia, so it is beneficial for Beijing to have a predictable and stable relationship with the Kremlin, which prevents serious costs for strengthening this section of the border. At the same time, any political upheaval can cause significant problems for the entire Central Asian region, which strongly contradicts the so-called Chinese stability.
China has experienced a complete reversal in its relations with Moscow several times in its history. A very striking example is the Sino-Soviet conflict. Initially, Mao Zedong had a very friendly relationship with Joseph Stalin. The partnership between the two countries was based on common communist ideas and the powerful promotion of the cult of personality in China and the USSR. The relationship between Mao and Stalin was so strong that the latter even had his own faction in the Chinese Communist Party.
However, as soon as Nikita Khrushchev came to replace Stalin, he began to destroy the achievements of his predecessor, including Stalin's personality cult. In the end, relations between China and the USSR slipped into open confrontation, which even escalated into isolated military clashes on the Soviet-Chinese border.
But China sees not only border interests in Putinism. Russia is selling resources to China at huge discounts for petty political support from Beijing, and immediate plans in joint energy projects will make the price of Russian resources even lower for China.
How China is clearing the way to the arms market at the expense of Russia
After the invasion of Ukraine, Russia also became cut off from the global arms trade. Moscow occupied a huge share of the arms market in Asian, Latin American and African countries. By trading in modernized Soviet models of equipment and weapons at a fairly low price, Russia was able to meet the needs of these countries. Now this market is actively beginning to occupy China.
After Russia cut arms supplies amid its own needs and global isolation, China is offering similar types of weapons at the same low price. Foreign Affairs writes international columnists Wasabjit Banerjee and Benjamin Tkach.
At the same time, Beijing continues to increase production, which suggests that The Kremlin may never return to these markets.
China wants to preserve “Putinism” without Putin, because any real democratization of Russia can significantly harm Chinese interests, both in terms of security – the likely unification of Russia with the West and NATO, as well as in matters of economic cooperation, when China actually downloads Russian resources. for a pittance.
Putin is losing Chinese immunity
Vladimir Putin, who spoke for a long time about personal friendly relations with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, seems to be rapidly losing his support. The problem is not only the terrorist attacks in Ukraine, which have an unambiguous color for the whole world, including China.
Putin has destroyed all state institutions within his country and moved on to the destruction of international institutions. Russia's sabotage of the UN activities is absolutely unacceptable for China, which has a strong position with this organization and strongly advocates the preservation of this organization.
China sees that Putin is clearly losing in this war and poses a direct threat to the whole world. At the same time, China can become the same lever of pressure on Putin, which will keep him from using nuclear weapons. A global nuclear exchange is definitely not in Beijing's plans .
