![]() Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, China has largely avoided running afoul of Western sanctions on Russia, essentially putting its own interests before those of its embattled client. Putin has made a potentially grave error, burning bridges with the West to go all in with China in reckless disregard for Beijing’s track record of instrumentalizing its friendships.ĭespite offering diplomatic cover for Mr. Putin’s revanchism and military aggression and China’s economic power is dangerous.īut Mr. Xi have unequivocally sided with each other in challenging the Western-led world order. Turning the clock back to the days of Sino-Soviet brotherhood, Mr. Xi, perhaps sensing diminishing returns from deeper engagement with America, has brought things full circle once more during the Putin era, embracing the Russian leader and denouncing the United States. global dominance and the belief that the Americans were intent on promoting the overthrow of their regimes. The West “may be in a euphoric mood now about China,” the Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko said, but would come to regret it.Ĭhina greatly benefited from its turn toward the United States, obtaining access to Western technology, investment and the vast American market, all of which turned out to be essential for China to eventually make the great leap to modernity and global clout that it now enjoys.īut by the early 1980s, Deng cagily began playing the barbarians against each other again.Ĭhina-Soviet relations grew closer over the rest of the decade, driven in part by shared resentment of U.S. And I think we ought to make sure that they are lashed down to our bed before we undertake actions which we might regret later on.”Įven the Soviets warned the United States about Beijing’s trustworthiness. Watson, saw through this, warning President Jimmy Carter in 1980 that the Chinese “jump around from bed to bed. The Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping continued cozying up to America, partly as a way to “ cope with the polar bear” - the Soviets - as he put it. “We are taking advantage of their conflict,” referring to the Soviets and the Americans. It was not because “we have good feelings toward the United States,” he said, according to the minutes of a party meeting. In 1975, Geng Biao, a senior Chinese foreign policy official, explained to other party leaders the rationale for the switch. Mao’s abrupt turn to the United States showed just how quickly Chinese loyalties can crumble when the usefulness of a strategic partner wanes. ![]() The Chinese Communist Party’s approach to geopolitics is rooted in an ancient strategic culture of playing other nations - sometimes dismissed as barbarians during China’s imperial times - against one another for China’s benefit. As Mikhail Kapitsa, a top Soviet foreign ministry official, put it in 1982, “The Chinese never befriend anyone for a long time.” But the Russian leader - his authority bruised in the wake of the aborted mutiny by the Wagner paramilitary group in June - would be wise to keep in mind China’s track record. 1 good fellow as the two countries make common cause against the United States. These days Vladimir Putin is Xi Jinping’s No.
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