Caught between Putin and the West, Xi Jinping must make a critical decision on Russia

          Xi Jinping is about to make one of the most critical choices of his nine-year presidency. During a meeting with Vladimir Putin, Xi claimed that the Sino-Russian partnership had “no bounds”. Prior to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the logic for China’s deeper relationship with Russia was evident. However, until China separates itself from Russia’s war on Ukraine, it risks suffering significant losses. Beijing runs the risk of being perceived as complicit in Putin’s aggressiveness, putting it on the wrong side of a new global split.

According to Hu Wei, China sees no difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. From Beijing, the US is adamantly opposed to China’s rise and determined to regard the nation as a long-term strategic adversary; China sees little obvious difference between Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s approaches. He contends that China will be shut off from Europe and militarily ringed by a tangle of Western alliances. Wang Huiyao, president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, warns that China cannot rely on Russia’s “anti-Western alliance”.