The News
Chinese premier Li Qiang said China would work with Russia to push comprehensive strategic cooperation ”to a new level" on a visit to Moscow Wednesday, as trade relations between the two countries reach new levels of closeness amid the war in Ukraine.
“Our countries have large-scale joint plans, projects in the economic and humanitarian areas, we expect them to last for many years,” Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said, according to state media.
China has sought to present itself as a neutral arbiter in the Russia-Ukraine war, but faces mounting demands to clamp down on the supply of dual-use goods to Russia that could be used for military purposes.
SIGNALS
Kyiv may have to turn to China if Trump is elected
China has long sought to portray itself as a global peacemaker in ongoing conflicts. But it has barely engaged with Ukraine and continues to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties with Moscow, CNN wrote. It was only this July that China hosted a top Ukrainian official for the first time since Russia’s 2022 invasion. But Kyiv will likely need to seek Beijing’s help if Donald Trump is elected US president, a China foreign policy scholar told VOA. “If Trump wins… Ukraine will basically be left to itself,” he said, adding that any gaps left by Washington will likely allow Beijing to present itself as “an alternative leader in global affairs.”
Russia-China friendship tested by Beijing’s geopolitical ambitions
China and Russia have declared a “no limit” friendship rooted in their shared mistrust of the West, but that relationship is being tested by Beijing’s global ambitions, The Wall Street Journal wrote. Through investments, energy, and infrastructure projects, China is chipping away at a distracted Russia’s spheres of influence in central Asia. “Moscow is increasingly finding itself a pawn of China’s geopolitical aspirations,” an analyst wrote in a UK-based security think tank. The long-term dynamics of this partnership, he argued, suggest “a purely transaction approach.”