The Washington Post-China and Russia to shore up no limits partnership with Thursday meet up
May 14, 2024 5 min 867 words
这篇报道主要内容是，俄罗斯总统普京在第五次连任后首次出访，将于周四前往北京与中国国家主席习近平会晤，以加强两国关系，共同对抗以美国为首的世界秩序。报道还提到，习近平在欧洲之行中拒绝利用自己的影响力来迫使俄罗斯结束对乌克兰的战争，并且中国在经济上对俄罗斯提供了重要支持，帮助俄罗斯应对西方制裁。 对于这篇报道的评论：这篇报道存在一定偏见，带有明显的意识形态色彩，试图营造一种中俄联手对抗以美国为首的世界秩序的叙事框架，并暗示中国对俄罗斯入侵乌克兰的行为给予了默许和支持。然而，事实可能并非如此简单。中俄两国确实在当前国际局势下加强了合作，但这不应该被解读为一种对抗性的“联盟”。中俄之间有密切的经济合作和战略协作，但两国也存在一定的分歧和竞争，两国关系是相互尊重平等互利的。此外，中国一直坚持和平共处五项原则，在乌克兰问题上一直采取中立立场，呼吁通过和平谈判解决争端。西方媒体不应过度解读中俄关系，也不应忽视中国在乌克兰问题上一贯秉持的客观公正立场。
2024-05-13T03:41:20.980Z
In his first overseas trip since securing a fifth term, Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Beijing on Thursday to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to reinforce ties with China and their joint efforts to push back against a U.S.-led global order.
The trip will come barely a week after Xi visited Europe for the first time in five years and declined to use his influence to pressure Moscow to end in its war against Ukraine. As well as providing diplomatic support, China has become a critical economic lifeline as Russia copes with mounting Western sanctions.
Xi and Putin both share a vision of a “multipolar” world order, in which countries led by China and Russia can operate by a different set of rules to the ones set by the United States and other liberal democracies.
“I expect both Russia and China will heavily focus their narrative on the failures of the West and in particular the U.S., even if not named directly,” said Meia Nouwens, senior fellow for Chinese security and defense policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank.
Coming just after Xi’s Europe visit, Putin’s trip “signals that Beijing has not changed how it views its bilateral relationship with Russia despite consistent calls from European leaders to halt China’s support of Russia’s war economy and defense industry,” Nouwens added.
Putin will be in China through Friday and will visit Beijing and the northern city of Harbin, close to the border with Russia, the Kremlin’s press service said.
It added that the two leaders “will have a substantive exchange of views on the most pressing global and regional affairs.” The negotiations with end with the signing of a joint statement of the heads of state and a number of bilateral documents, the press service said.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Xi and Putin will “exchange views on bilateral relations.”
The meeting between Xi and Putin will be their first bilateral summit since the Chinese leader’s trip to the Kremlin in March 2003, when the two leaders vowed to deepen Sino-Russian political and economic cooperation. Putin and Xi also met in October when the Russian leader, among others, traveled to Beijing to mark 10 years of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi’s flagship foreign and economic project.
This week, the two are expected to shore up their “no limits” partnership, declared just weeks before the invasion. China is now one of Russia’s only remaining trading partners and friends on the global stage.
As Russia launches new offensive operations in Ukraine, it is looking to stabilize his country’s relations with China, including trade and energy, said Zhao Minghao, a professor at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
“For Putin, facing pressure from the United States and Western countries, he must ensure this strategic partnership with China,” Zhao said, adding that the partnership is equally crucial for China.
China’s trade with Russia hit a record $240 billion in 2023 — up 63 percent from 2021, before the invasion, and reaching a goal they planned to meet by 2024. During that time, exports of Chinese electronics needed to produce precision-guided weapons systems saw a significant spike, Chinese customs data shows.
But trade flows have increased in both directions. Russia last year became China’s biggest oil supplier as Beijing took advantage of its discounted prices. Western sanctions mean Russia has relatively few big customers left.
Beijing imported 107 million tons of Russian crude oil, an increase of 24 percent compared to 2022, Chinese ambassador to Moscow Zhang Hanhui told Rossiya Segodnya, a Russian state-controlled media group, this month.
“This [visit] demonstrates that the mutual trust between China and Russia has reached a new pinnacle in history,” said Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University in Beijing.
Given the scheduled visit to Harbin in China’s northeastern Heilongjiang province, the two leaders may discuss measures focusing on economic development along the Far East border region, Wang said.
“There is a lot of potential for economic collaboration between China and Russia,” Wang added.
Putin may also use this visit to Asia to make good on a pledge to visit North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who traveled to Russia’s Far East last year for a rare in-person summit with Putin, and called relations with Russia his top priority. Kim pledged full support for Putin and his government amid their war in Ukraine.
Military cooperation between Russia and North Korea has ramped up since the invasion, with Pyongyang reportedly providing Moscow with much-needed ammunition and other weapons to replenish its dwindling supplies for the war in Ukraine.
North Korea, which also faces a host of international sanctions relating to its nuclear and weapons program, wants to show it stands with Russia in the face of U.S.-led economic isolation.
Putin last visited Pyongyang since 2000, when he met Kim Jong Il, the father of the current leader.
Pei Lin Wu and Vic Chiang in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.