“It’s an unequal partnership and China is in the dominant position in the relationship,” said Matthew Sussex, an associate professor at Griffith University in Australia. He attributed this to the fact that Russia needs China more than China needs Russia. The comments come a day after the Chinese leader met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Samarkand. It was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Russia launched an unprovoked war in neighboring Ukraine in February. During the meeting, Xi expressed that Beijing is “ready to cooperate with Russia” so that they can support each other’s “core interests,” according to Chinese state media Xinhua, which listed areas of cooperation such as trade, agriculture and connectivity. But Sussex pointed out that a China-Russia partnership may not necessarily be on equal terms. Chinese President Xi Jinping (R), Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh (unseen) hold a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders’ summit in Samarkand on Sep 15, 2022. China and Russia’s relationship may not necessarily be on an equal footing, said Griffith University Associate Professor Matthew Sussex. Alexander Demyanchuk AFP | Getty Images While China has been buying cheap oil from Russia, Beijing has consistently denied supplying Moscow with weapons. Sussex explained that this may be an indication that Beijing has “some real concerns and real discomfort” with Russia about the conduct of the conflict. The conflict has so far claimed about 34,000 lives, according to an August New York Times report that said Ukraine lost 9,000 soldiers while Russia lost about 25,000 lives on the battlefield. Moscow has repeatedly referred to the attack in Ukraine as a “special operation”. However, the strategic cooperation between China and Russia will continue to exist, said University of Nevada associate professor Xiaoyu Pu. He said the alliance is such that both powers can counter “Western hegemony,” a term used to describe the West’s dominance — politically, socially or economically — in the global community. “China needs Russia’s strategic partnership to offset … Western hegemony, so China and Russia will continue to trade to maintain some kind of normal economic relationship,” he said.
“Token Support”
Russia and China held a week-long joint military exercise in the Sea of Japan with other troops including India, Laos and Mongolia last month. Both countries have held joint exercises in recent years, including in Russia’s Far East. However, Pu pointed out that “the relationship has limitations.” “China will not provide any military support … to Russia, so I think China has its own reservations about Russia’s war,” he said. “This Russia-China cooperation is not a form of military alliance. It is more… [a] symbolic support”. In their last face-to-face meeting in February, Xi and Putin sealed a “borderless” partnership. They pledged diplomatic and political support to each other and agreed to have no “forbidden” areas of cooperation. Similarly, Sussex pointed to the inhibitions Beijing may have, as shown by China’s reluctance to provide arms to Russia. Since early September, Ukraine has recaptured more than 6,000 square kilometers of territory from Russian control, including the second-largest city of Kharkiv, its president said. “I think Xi will probably remain on the sidelines for the foreseeable future,” Sussex said. “And yet this significantly hurts the Russians in prosecuting the war.” “There are limits to ‘borderless’ cooperation, and increasingly, those limits are being set by Beijing, not Moscow,” Sussex said. “China is no longer ready for Russia to act as it pleases.”
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