Red carpet, twenty-one cannon shots in Tiananmen Square, children waving flowers and flags… Xi Jinping received Vladimir Putin with the greatest honors, Thursday, May 16, in Beijing, before his host went to Harbin the next day , capital of Heilongjiang Province (northeast).
Illustration of a deep relationship – they have seen each other more than forty times since 2013 – the two men had tea outside, on rattan armchairs, before walking alone with their translators along the lakes of Zhongnanhai, the palaces of power which adjoin the Forbidden City. Seventy-five years after the establishment of diplomatic relations and “despite the wind and the rain”Sino-Russian ties are “today at their best historical level”according to Xi Jinping.
The length of the joint communiqué, 7,000 words in Russian, and an extremely rare hug from Mr. Xi say a lot about the convergence of views. It is a question of trade, energy, but also of military cooperation to “constantly improve the capacity and level of both parties to respond to risks and challenges”. The common adversary is explicitly named, the United States, and their “attempts to weaken strategic stability in order to maintain their military superiority”.
“Model” relationship
China, which until now had not entered this area, allowed a “strong condemnation of attitudes which magnify or even try to revive Nazism and militarism” – reference to the fallacious pretext used by Mr. Putin to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
That relation ” model “ is qualified as “comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era”, diplomatic jargon that places it at the pinnacle of China’s relations. On the other hand, and despite all the pomp, the terms “friendship without limits” which had been employed three weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 are no longer valid. The formula was thought up at the end of 2021 by the Chinese vice minister of foreign affairs with the most power, the specialist in Russian issues Le Yucheng. But, in June 2022, three months after the start of the war in Ukraine, he was transferred as deputy head of the radio and television administration, then retired the following year.
China is now keen to establish a framework for this partnership which is costing it a lot in its deteriorated relationship with European countries, essential outlets for its exports. Despite his displayed support for Mr. Putin, Xi Jinping recalled, in front of his counterpart, China’s attachment to “the territorial integrity of all countries”, and therefore its refusal of the successive annexations carried out by Russia in Ukraine. Beijing also views with concern the nuclear rhetoric used by the Russian president, who carried out exercises simulating the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in early May, while Xi Jinping was visiting France. “There can be no winners in nuclear war, and they should never happen”we read in the joint press release.
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