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China-Russia Relations

Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing 16 October 2023 marked the second Russia-China summit this year. This time, the president is paying a visit to his friend and strategic partner, following agreements reached during Xi Jinping’s trip to Moscow in March. At that time, the Chinese leader invited Putin to attend the third forum of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which marks its tenth anniversary.

After reaching almost $200 billion last year, trade between the two countries could exceed $300-350 billion in the medium term. The current transport infrastructure is struggling to cope with the growing flow of goods, and new solutions are needed. The leaders of Russia and China discussed this at the Beijing summit. This could include new railway lines across their common border and through Central Asian countries, as well as pipelines.

The activities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization required long overdue improvements and a transition to a new level of interaction. Putin and Xi also discussed the implications of the recent summit between China and the Central Asian states, as Beijing's intention to turn it into a permanent institutional format is unlikely to please Moscow.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin wrapped up three days of summit talks in Moscow in a full display of close bilateral relations, apparently aiming to keep the United States in check. Xi departed from Moscow on 22 March 2023 after his three-day state visit to Russia that started from 20 March. The Russian presidential office says Xi and Putin held talks for a total of over 10 hours. On the situation in Ukraine, no concrete solutions were presented. While showing support for China's proposal that calls for dialogue and a ceasefire, Putin blamed the West. He said it intends to fight Russia right to the very end. Xi also showed a willingness to further deepen cooperation with Russia. There was no specific mention of Chinese weapon supplies to Russia, a prospect that the United States and other countries are concerned about.

The relationship between the two countries has changed from "mutually regarded as friendly countries" to constructive partners, from strategic cooperative partners to comprehensive strategic cooperative partners, and then to comprehensive strategic cooperative partners in the new era. There is a turbulent and clear statement: "There is no 'democracy' that is superior to others. Both sides oppose imposing their own values on others, and oppose drawing lines based on ideology".

China has been Russia's largest trading partner for 13 consecutive years, and the bilateral trade volume increased by nearly 30% in 2022. During the meeting, the two heads of state repeatedly mentioned two figures: one is "in 2012, the bilateral trade volume between China and Russia was more than 80 billion US dollars." Another is "By 2022, break through 190 billion US dollars." President Putin said of the $200 billion goal: "It will be achieved this year, not in 2024. It is important that the two countries settle an increasing share of bilateral trade in their own currencies, which makes our relationship more autonomous."

Russia overtook Saudi Arabia to be China’s top oil supplier in the first two months of 2023, according to Chinese government data, as buyers snapped up sanctioned Russian oil at steep discounts. Arrivals from Russia totalled 15.68 million tonnes in January-February, or 1.94 million barrels per day (bpd), up 23.8 percent from 1.57 million bpd in the corresponding 2022 period.

Xi’s visit to Moscow is a clear declaration by China that Sino-Russia strategic alignment will continue and expand. "The Putin-Xi summit would be most likely recorded in history as one of the most important, most great, and most gargantuan geopolitical, geo-economic, strategic-military events in the 21st century," Dr. Kiyul Chung, editor-in-chief at 4th Media and a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, told Sputnik.

The two called for “responsible dialogue” to resolve the Ukraine crisis with Xi acknowledging Beijing and Moscow had signed an agreement bringing ties into a “new era” of cooperation. “Right now there are changes – the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years – and we are the ones driving these changes together,” Xi told Putin. The Russian president responded: “I agree.”

The summit outlined the already visible contours of the post-conflict structure of the world. And this, of course, is not about the fight against the Kyiv regime, but about a much more important confrontation with the West. The obvious problems of the guardians of the old world were evident - the inability of the entire NATO bloc to resist Russia in Ukraine, and economic problems, signaling a deepening crisis, and internal discontent among the inhabitants of certain Western countries.

Xi’s visit with Putin took place as the war in Ukraine entered its second year and the Russian leader has become increasingly isolated globally. The previous week, the International Criminal Court had issued an arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes involving the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. China has no interest in seeing the US-led bloc succeed in Ukraine, which would significantly weaken Russia.

Beijing has finally realized that the time of peaceful and comfortable development is over. It is China that the United States sees as its main adversary for decades to come, and the pressure on it will only increase. Beijing has no more solid and reliable partner than Moscow; there is simply no other candidate.

China painted Xi’s three-day trip as an opportunity to “promote global strategic stability amid the ongoing Ukraine crisis.” The two leaders signed 14 agreements and pledged to deepen their strategic partnership, but Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, described the agreements as “pretty thin.” Missing were a deal on a natural gas pipeline that Putin hoped to build to increase Russian energy sales to China and any public breakthrough on ending the war.

The dominant attitude in both Chinese and Russian political logic is freedom of action and maximum sovereignty. As a result, both Moscow and Beijing shy away from describing their relationship as an alliance, preferring more fluid phrases. Putin, who spoke during an interview with the state television on 26 March 2023, said that Moscow and Beijing have "cooperation in the sphere of military-technical interaction," which they are not hiding. But they are "not creating any military alliance". Putin said, "Everything is transparent, there is nothing secret. We have military cooperation, we conduct drills, not only with China, but even with other countries as well." Putin then proceeded to accuse the West and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of "starting to build a new axis" similar to the one built by Italy, Germany and militaristic Japan during World War II.

China on 20 February 2023 lashed out at the United States saying that Washington made "false" claims about Beijing being on the brink of supplying arms and ammunition to Russia to support its war against Ukraine. "It is the United States and not China that is endlessly shipping weapons to the battlefield," said China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, while speaking about the US claims. "We urge the United States to earnestly reflect on its own actions, and do more to alleviate the situation, promote peace and dialogue, and stop shifting blame and spreading false information," he added.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in an interview with CBS, said that China was "considering providing lethal support" to Moscow ranging "from ammunition to the weapons themselves". Similar comments were made by him in a series of interviews from Germany, where he took part in the Munich Security Conference and met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. The accusations of Blinken came in the wake of the straining relationship between the two nations after Washington shot down what it claimed to be a Chinese spy balloon.

China's top diplomat Wang Yi met Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Moscow on 22 February 2022. In remarks broadcast on Russian state TV, Wang said that "the Chinese-Russian relations aren't directed against any third countries and certainly can't be subject to pressure from any third countries." In his talks with Patrushev, Wang reaffirmed China's support for Russia and said relations between Moscow and Beijing are ''solid as a rock'' and will ''stand the test of the volatile international situation.'' Patrushev said that in its attempt to hold on to global domination, the West was trying to deter Russia and China.

A German magazine reported 23 February 2023 that a Chinese firm was in talks to supply the Russian military with 100 attack drones by as early as April. Der Spiegel reported that the Chinese firm has apparently come to an agreement with Russia about the production and testing of the drones. It also reported that the drones are set to be delivered to the Russian Defense Ministry in April. The magazine said the Chinese drone is a type that carries explosives and blows itself up when it hits a target. The device is reportedly similar to the Iran-developed drones that Russia has been using in Ukraine. The Chinese drone can reportedly carry warheads that weigh up to 50 kilograms. The report said the company is also planning to help Moscow establish a site for the production of the drones in Russia. The magazine added that another company controlled by the Chinese military had planned to supply Russia with spare parts for its Sukhoi-27 warplanes.

China on 24 February 2023 restated its calls for political settlement of the Ukraine crisis with more specific plans for ceasing hostilities and resuming peace talks, stopping unilateral sanctions and "abandoning the Cold War mentality", which is Beijing’s standard term for what it regards as global dominance by the United States and its interference in other countries’ affairs. The proposal mainly elaborates on long-held Chinese positions, including that all countries’ “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity be effectively guaranteed”. Dai Bing, charge d'affaires of China's permanent mission to the UN, told the UN General Assembly Emergency Special Session on Ukraine that "One year into the Ukraine crisis, brutal facts have offered ample proofs that sending weapons will not bring peace, adding fuel to the fire will only exacerbate tensions, and prolonging and expanding the conflict will only make ordinary people pay an even heftier price."

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that Beijing does not have credibility to propose a ceasefire deal in Ukraine. He reminded that China had signed an agreement with Russia only days before its invasion of Ukraine a year ago. “China doesn’t have much credibility because they have not been able to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine,” he said. A spokesperson for Germany’s government noted important elements, such as a call for the withdrawal of Russian forces, were missing from the proposal.

The US opposes a temporary and immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, which will only help Russia rearm its forces. This statement was made by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at a meeting of the UN Security Council. "Russia will use any stoppage in hostilities to consolidate control over the occupied territory and re-equip their forces for subsequent attacks."

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukraine’s president, said any plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine must involve the withdrawal of Moscow’s troops back to Ukraine’s 1991 borders at the time of the Soviet Union’s collapse. “Any ‘peace plan’ with ceasefire only and, as a result, a new delimitation line and continued occupation of Ukrainian territory isn’t about peace, but about freezing the war, a Ukrainian defeat, [and the] next stages of Russia’s genocide,” he said.

On 04 February 2022, on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a Joint Statement on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development. The nearly 6,000-word joint statement is a rather lengthy document, outlining common approaches of China and Russia to some of the most fundamental issues of the modern world including regional and worldwide security, democracy and political inclusion, social justice and climate change, arms control and nuclear nonproliferation, national sovereignty and multilateralism.

Xi stressed the further deepening of "back-to-back" strategic coordination between the two countries in upholding international fairness and justice and adhering to the four consensuses in supporting each other's sovereignty, security and development interests to better tackle external interference and regional threats.

In a clear rejection of the US-led West's hegemony in international relations, the joint statement said that a small number of forces continue stubbornly to promote unilateralism, adopt power politics and interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, stressing that such acts will not be accepted by the international community. In the face of US hegemony - a product left behind by the Cold War mentality - China and Russia are the only two countries that have the capability to safeguard their core interests and sovereignty.

In the joint statement, China and Russia oppose the further expansion of NATO and called on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon its ideologized Cold War approaches, to respect the sovereignty, security and interests of other countries, the diversity of their civilizational, cultural and historical backgrounds, and to exercise a fair and objective attitude towards the peaceful development of other states.

They also stand against the formation of closed bloc structures and opposing camps in the Asia-Pacific region and remain highly vigilant about the negative impact of the US' Indo-Pacific strategy on peace and stability in the region. China and Russia are also seriously concerned about AUKUS, which allows cooperation on nuclear-powered submarines.

The end of the long-held animosity between Moscow and Beijing was marked by the visit to China by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989. After the 1991 demise of the Soviet Union, China’s relations with the Russian Federati on and the former states of the Soviet Union became more amicable. A new round of bilateral agreements was signed during reciprocal head of state visits. As in the early 1950s with the Soviet Union, Russia has again become an important source of military matériel for China, as well as for raw materials and trade. Friendly relations with Russia have been an important advantage for China, offsetting its often uneasy relations with the United States.

Russia's foreign policy toward China generally has had two goals: to preserve a counterweight against United States influence in the Pacific and to prevent Chinese regional hegemony and a Sino-Japanese alliance that could exclude Russia. This balancing act appeared in Russia's 1993 foreign policy concept in its call for weighing the benefits of increased Russian arms sales to China against the danger of re-creating a Cold War arms race in which the respective proxies would be Taiwan and China. Accordingly, the concept endorsed neighborly and substantive relations with China while ensuring that "third countries," such as the United States or Japan, would not be able to use China as an ally against Russia.

In the early 1990s, relations got a boost from China's interest in renewed weapons imports from Russia and other forms of military cooperation. In 1992 an exchange of visits by high defense officials established defense ties and included the signing of a major arms technology agreement with a reported value of US$1.8 billion. In 1993 another series of defense exchange visits yielded a five-year defense cooperation agreement. A strategic partnership, signed in early 1996, significantly strengthened ties.

In December 1992, Yeltsin went to China and signed a nonaggression declaration that theoretically ended what each called the other's search for regional hegemony in Asia. Another treaty included Russian aid in building a nuclear power plant, the first such provision since Sino-Soviet relations cooled in the late 1950s. Chinese party chairman Jiang Zemin visited Moscow in September 1994 and concluded a protocol that resolved some border disputes and generally strengthened bilateral ties. During Yeltsin's visit to China in April 1996, both sides described their relationship as evolving into a "strategic partnership," which included substantially increased arms sales. At the April meeting, new agreements made progress toward delineating and demilitarizing the two countries' 3,645 kilometers of common border. Although border security and illegal Chinese immigration into the Russian Far East were controversial issues for Russian regional officials, Yeltsin demanded regional compliance with the agreements. Russia respected China's claim that Taiwan is part of its territory, although Russia's trade with Taiwan increased to nearly US$3 billion in 1995 and Russia planned to open trade offices on the island in 1996.

In Beijing, on October 15, 2004, an Additional Agreement on the Russian-Chinese state border was signed, in particular regarding its eastern part. Also, during Vladimir Putin’s visit to China, the head of Russia signed a document on the voluntary transfer of Tarabarova Island and part of the Big Ussuri Island to the People’s Republic of China. Among other things, the defining border line along the Amur River was closed by signing a description protocol on July 21, 2008.

In 1994-96 China emerged as a major market for Russian arms, having bought several dozen Su-27 fighter aircraft and several Kilo-class attack submarines. Russia also had a positive trade balance in the sale of raw materials, metals, and machinery to China. A series of high-level state visits occurred in 1994 and 1995. Both countries pursued closer ties, in each case partly to counterbalance their cooling relations with the United States. In March 1996, Russia announced that it would grant China a loan of US$2 billion to supply Russian nuclear reactors for power generation in northeast China, and further cooperation was proposed in uranium mining and processing, fusion research, and nuclear arms dismantlement.

China and Russia's joint perception of shared external threats drove warming relations. These threats include concerns that the they overtly sought to counter: terrorism, separatism and extremism. Russia actually perceives an expanding NATO as its primary external threat, and sought to use closer ties with China as a counterweight. China in turn sought to use this to counter U.S. military cooperation with Japan and South Korea in Northeast Asia. Sino-Russian cooperation in slowing down the push for additional sanctions against Iran was an example of a joint Chinese-Russian desire to counter the United States.

It is no coincidence that Dmitri Medvedev chose China [and Kazakhstan] for his first trip abroad as Russian president in May 2008. During the past eight years, Russia-China trade increased seven-fold, reaching $48-billion last year. The balance of trade is very much in China's favor. Russia basically exports oil and timber and precious metals to China. Russia supplies natural resources for Chinese industry, while China exports consumer goods and also increasingly industrial equipment, manufacturing goods. It's a very, very unequal relationship. And the Russians are not very happy with the fact that they seem to be almost, what they fear to be a raw materials appendage to the growing Chinese economy. The relationship in trade terms is almost acquiring a neo-colonial tinge to it.

By 2008, with the two countries' "strategic partnership" a decade old, China and Russia regularly emphasized the positive in relations between the two countries. Premier Wen Jiabao during his 05 November 2008 visit to Moscow declared that Sino-Russian ties are at their "best in history." Wen was celebrating the closing of the "Year of China" in Russia, which followed 2006's "Year of Russia" in China.

From the early 1990s until 2006, Moscow was Beijing's leading weapons supplier, averaging one-to-two billion dollars a year in sales. Top items included the Sukhoi SU-27 jet fighter, "Kilo" class submarines, missiles and destroyers. But analysts say that after 2006, arms sales had dropped. In 1992, China bought Russia's Su-27 fighter jets. Fifteen years later, Beijing unveiled J-11B aircraft which Moscow labeled as a copycat version of Su-27. Russia also accused China of producing cloned versions of Su-33 fighter jet, S-300 air defense system, the Smerch multiple rocket launcher and the Msta self-propelled howitzer in violation of intellectual property agreements.

What the Chinese had been essentially doing was reverse-engineering the Russian aircraft and destroyers, and they've stopped buying them now. And Russia is concerned that basically China has stolen the copies and now are going to put them in production and not buy Russian equipment. So after 2005, arms sales were stagnant. Russia was worried that that they had essentially sold out all of their know-how and technological expertise to China, and China had essentially committed copyright infringement and was building their own.

PRC military buyers have largely replaced Russian-made goods with domestically produced equipment due to rapid increases in quality in the Chinese arms. By 2008 the PLA was so impressed with the quality of Chinese-made arms that they no longer viewed Russian arms as important to their military procurement. In fact, the PLA was increasingly complaining about the quality of Russian-made arms China had previously purchased.

China and Russia shared common goals of limiting U.S. influence in Central Asia, maintaining political stability in the region and avoiding another color revolution like in Ukraine or Georgia. While China and Russia enjoyed political and security cooperation in Central Asia, the two countries competed economically in the region, particularly on energy issues. China was very interested in multilateral economic cooperation on cross-border infrastructure and transportation projects, while Russia was concerned that multilateral economic cooperation in Central Asia would primarily benefit China.

Despite China and Russia's public statements about the importance of their strategic partnership, neither country viewed its bilateral relationship as its top foreign policy priority. The main barriers to better relations between China and Russia were the lack of trust on both sides and the difficulty both countries faced translating the principles of their strategic partnership into concrete measures. Building good relations with Russia was China's second most important foreign policy priority after improving relations with the United States. Russia viewed relations with China as less important than its relationship with the United States, the European Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

China's close official ties with Russia were not reflective of Chinese officials' true views of Russia. In spite of PRC public support for the Sino-Russian "strategic partnership," many Chinese officials privately view Russia as "irrational, aggressive and untrustworthy". Chinese concerns about Russian aggression, as well as China's proximity to Russia, necessitated a careful, low-key approach to dealing with Russia. China's relationship with Russia was the best embodiment of China's foreign policy dictum of "hiding one's capacities and biding one's time".

China-Russia relations could experience big changes after 2012, as power passed from President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to a younger generation of leaders led by Vice President Xi Jinping and Executive Vice Premier Li Keqiang. Hu and Wen had come of age during the honeymoon period of China-Soviet relations in the 1950s and still felt affinity for Russia, whereas Xi and Li's generation had had relatively little exposure to Russian culture and had few good feelings about Russia. These younger leaders' personal attitudes about Russia could affect bilateral relations, particularly if tensions were to arise over energy or other issues.

In March 2013 Beijing and Moscow signed two arms-sale contracts in which China will buy Russian fighter jets and submarines. The deals, for 24 Su-35 fighters and four Lada-class submarines, raised concern among some regional players and media. Chinese observers said the reaction was "unnecessary" because the purchase is not directed at any third party. The purchase deals were signed before President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia. The purchases represented "the first time in nearly 10 years" that China had bought large military technological equipment from Russia.

Li Hong, secretary-general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, said the recent purchases and joint building plan serve as an indicator of the evolution of the overall Sino-Russian strategic partnership. "It is the natural, well-deserved fruit of bilateral defense cooperation, and both sides have made it clear that the bilateral strategic partnership is not targeting anyone," Li said.

The enhanced agenda of bilateral defense cooperation also saw Xi, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, visit Russia's Defense Ministry. Xi is the first Chinese head of state to have made the tour, and he said the idea of visiting the ministry was proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The world is still unequal, unbalanced and tumultuous, with challenges of both "traditional and nontraditional" threats, as well as the further spreading of turmoil in some areas, Xi said. China and Russia, in the face of complicated international situation, should strengthen their coordination, and work with the international community to deal with all kinds of challenges and threats, he said.

Chang Wanquan, Chinese State councilor and defense minister, said during a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that wide-ranging and multilayer defense cooperation has become a cornerstone of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership. "Given the complex international scenario today, China-Russia strategic cooperation and coordination will not only benefit the two peoples, but also help promote world peace and stability," he said.

In Russia, a sharp intensification of propaganda, "turning to the East" in 2014 led to the formation in a large part of society of ridiculous hopes on the progress of bilateral relations. As expected, they were replaced by an equally absurd "disappointment" in 2015 with the spread of absurd rumors about the "actual accession of China to the sanctions," and the absence of any progress in Russian-Chinese cooperation. One problem is especially disastrous in Russia against the background of well-known features of the Russian state propaganda, which ballyhoo d political plans as soon as they begin to acquire at least a vague outline. The formations are exaggerated, deliberately creating unrealistic expectations in order to gain short-term political payoff, which will inevitably lead to disappointment in the project and to discredit it. This in Russia in recent years has ruined the reputation of countless important reforms, economic and technological programs, which, strictly speaking, the actual point of view, could be regarded as a complete or partial success.

The June 2016 Sino-Russian joint statement on strengthening global strategic stability starts with a reference to "dangerous trend", associated with the desire to "certain states and military-political alliances to achieve determines the military and political superiority" in order to use force and the threat of force to advance their interests. Further declaration accusing "some countries and alliances" in the care of the dialogue on cuts the weapons that "are considered by them as a means to ensure military superiority." Russia and China refuse to consider strategic stability as a purely military category from the scope of nuclear arms. Russia and China clearly indicated that concerned the deployment of elements of US missile defense system in Eastern Europe and Northeast Asia "under false pretenses". Next, the two countries set out their own new understanding of the strategic stability, which, apparently, will serve as a basis for further negotiations with the United States on strategic issues. Russia and China refuse to consider strategic stability as a purely military category from the scope of nuclear arms. Both countries apparently consider nuclear weapons as one of the foundations of its security and intended to fend off any US anti-nuclear initiatives counterclaims to discuss the nuclear issue in the complex, taking into account conventional weapons and non-military aspects of security.

Beijing's special relationship with Moscow will continue to develop no matter what happens in the rest of the world, President Xi Jinping said on 05 July 2017 during his sixth trip to Russia as China's top leader. The two countries are dedicated to boosting mutual political trust, connecting the Belt and Road with the Eurasian Economic Union and coordinating closely in global affairs, Xi said, adding that the bilateral ties have added positive energy on the path to global peace and development.