SLOWLY BUT SURELY RUSSIA IS BECOMING A VASSAL STATE OF CHINA

The no limits relationship’ does have limits. Beijing has not provided material support for Putin’s war effort, nor has it helped his government and banks evade the tough sanctions.

It’s now a year since Fee Vladimir Putin sat opposite Chinese President Xi Jinping around that huge mahogany table, festooned with flowers, and declared their partnership without limits”. In the joint statement after the meeting, Russia voiced support for China’s stance that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and in turn China supported Russia in calling for an end to NATO expansion into its neighbours.

Purely by chance, of course, less than three weeks after the two leaders embraced, Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine, starting an invasion that would devastate the country and cause a huge humanitarian crisis. The world noticed that China did not shrink from that declaration of love with Russia. Instead, Beijing claimed impartiality in the conflict and suspiciously insisted that it had had no advanced warning of the invasion. While refusing to condemn Moscow’s actions, China simply parroted Moscow’s excuse, blaming NATO for provoking the conflict.

So, twelve months on, how’s the unlimited partnership going?

If you listen to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov it’s great, and relations between Russia and China know no bounds”. Ina TV interview last week, Lavrov insisted that relations are of a higher quality than traditional military alliances and are the best in the history of both the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, and the Russian Federation. But as last year unfolded, the true nature of the Russia-China relationship became more apparent. What emerged was nothing like an axis of autocrats, but a lopsided partnership in which the terms are defined by its alpha member, Xi Jinping, primarily to serve China’s interests.