China and Russia have strengthened their political, economic and military relations this year, despite their uneasy history in the past, as both countries say they resent what they call growing pressure from the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far this year, the two have held a series of military exercises and issued joint diplomatic statements aimed at Western countries. On November 27, for example, an essay by both countries\u2019 ambassadors to Washington protested the upcoming U.S.-led\u00a0Summit for Democracy\u00a0for creating divisions in the world. Neither Russia nor China appeared on the list of 110 invitees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia depends on China\u2019s massive industrial economy for oil and gas exports as environmental rules in the European Union complicate energy imports there, said Vassily Kashin, senior fellow at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said two-way relations were at their strongest since the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost importantly, we have a common position concerning the global order, which is that we don\u2019t like the U.S. global order, so this close partnership is based on common opposition to the U.S.-led global order,\u201d Kashin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Western democracies from the United States to Australia and throughout Europe have strengthened their own ties this year at a time of concern about China\u2019s policies. Western governments have signaled opposition to Beijing\u2019s aggressive language on Taiwan, its crackdown on dissenters in Hong Kong and its policies targeting a Muslim minority in China’s Xinjiang region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Countries, including the West and some in Southeast Asia, further resent China\u2019s \u201cwolf warrior diplomacy\u201d approach that has seen China\u2019s Communist Party become more vocal about promoting its views among overseas audiences. In foreign relations, experts say Beijing has been using \u201cincreasingly assertive tactics\u201d to \u201caggressively defend their home country,\u201d often in the cyber world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China and Russia in turn hope to stop a return to U.S.-driven soft power of the Barack Obama-George W. Bush presidencies, when smaller countries saw the United States as \u201cmore acceptable leaders\u201d among great powers, said Alan Chong, associate professor at the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chinese soft power, Chong said, \u201chas taken a hit\u201d because of President Xi Jinping’s comments that make him sound strong at home at the expense of solidarity and friendship overseas. China sees U.S. President Joe Biden as \u201ca very tough opponent,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Western governments have called out China this year particularly over its perceived aggression toward Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing calls its own. A U.S. official also warned Russia last month about troop buildup near Ukraine.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Evidence of stronger Sino-Russian ties<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n With the world\u2019s second-strongest military, after the United States, Russia holds occasional military exercises with China \u2014 five made public to date \u2014 while selling arms to its giant neighbor to the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In October, China and Russia held their 10th annual “Maritime Interaction\u201d naval drills with the Russian Pacific Fleet\u2019s anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleyev, the Moscow-based Sputnik news service reported. China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy sent several destroyers and a diesel submarine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two navies drill together to strengthen \u201ccombat capabilities\u201d in case of \u201cseaborne threats,\u201d Sputnik said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia and China held five days of military exercises in a remote region of central China in August, drawing more than 10,000 service personnel, aircraft, artillery and armored vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China and Russia also began operating a space weather center this month in Beijing and Moscow, the Chinese state-run China Daily <\/em>reported. In June, they agreed to extend their 20-year-old Treaty of Good Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation to strengthen relations by respecting each other\u2019s interests and sovereignty, the Daily <\/em>said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia looks to China for support of its goal in occupying parts of Ukraine, as well as a conduit to show Moscow can \u201cstill play a role\u201d in Asia, in the region,\u201d said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank in Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China needs Russian weapons, energy and support against Western pressure, Yang said. Russia agreed in 2015 to sell China 24 combat aircraft and four S-400 surface-to-air missile systems for about $7 billion. On the economic side, China became Russia\u2019s No. 1 trading partner in 2017. Two years ago, Xi and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, agreed to fuse each side\u2019s efforts to open trade routes by building infrastructure in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think this is the traditional, old-fashioned balance of power,\u201d Yang said. \u201cThey consider if China and Russia can join together, they can also regulate the regional security issues.\u201d Limits to Sino-Russian cooperation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cold War-era distrust between China and Russia is likely to limit cooperation to broad or informal actions rather than a signed pact, analysts say. Sino-Russian relations faded in the 1960s when the two Communist parties split over ideology and border conflicts ensued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two sides could set up a military technology sharing deal like the AUKUS pact involving Australia, Britain and the United States, said Nguyen Thanh Trung, a faculty member at Fulbright University Vietnam. Earlier goals haven’t been met, he told VOA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOver the last two years, China and Russia have signed a lot of agreements, but I don\u2019t see a lot of concrete progress in their agreements,\u201d Nguyen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Western allies need not worry about China-Russia cooperation unless the two powers sign a formal agreement, Chong said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If you see an MOU [memorandum of understanding] where they would state, explicitly, [that] they would stage X number of military exercises, they would establish some sort of integrated military command or something, then there\u2019s cause for worry, but as they go at the moment, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything to worry about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This week the Pentagon announced as part of a regular review of its forces around the world that it would reinforce deployments and bases directed at China and Russia, while still maintaining forces in the Middle East to deter terrorist groups and Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" China and Russia have strengthened their political, economic and military relations this year, despite their uneasy history in the past, as both countries say they resent what they call growing pressure from the West. 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