Reward To Vassal Or Taming Of Cash Cow: What is Behind Xi's Visit To Moscow

The main versions by opinion makers.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow despite an arrest warrant against Russian dictator Vladimir Putin issued a few days ago by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Politicians and experts have already begun summing up the first results of this visit.

Charter97.org analysed opinion makers on Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow.

“Beijing will aim to get more dividends from the history of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In the context of Russia's weakening, the rapprochement between Beijing and Moscow will be greater, but on China's terms," said Valeriy Klochok, a political expert and head of the Vezha Center for Public Analytics.

Russia under Putin serves as a cash cow for China, according to Russian sociologist Igor Eidman.

“The Chinese authorities are horrified to see how their cow has gone berserk and is racing towards its death. They are trying to make one last attempt to save it." [...] However, Putin is insane. He does not understand that he is losing the war, and will probably not agree to a Chinese plan that will save him. He is strongly afraid of publicly showing his weakness like many weak people,” Mr Aidman wrote on Telegram.

Moritz Rudolph, an employee of the China Center at Yale Law School, noted that Russia is now more dependent on China than in 2014, when, after the annexation of Crimea, Moscow offered Beijing to supply gas through the Power of Siberia pipeline at a reduced price.

China looks at Russia as a conquered country, according to Russian oppositionist and political scientist Andrey Piontkovsky.

“Xi Jinping believes that the 'Russian Ulus' has failed. And the very fact of Russia's defeat does not bother China. China sees Russia as a territory to capture,” Mr Piontkovsky said.

Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin believes that China has raised an existential question for the Russian elites.

“The weakening of Russia is very beneficial for it. This allows it to gain indirect control over the Russian Federation. Many in Russia are actually thinking about this scenario, and after the warrant for Putin's arrest, they will begin to think it over very seriously. The Russian elites have something to lose, and soon it may be too late,” Mr Klimkin wrote on Facebook.

According to Russian human rights activist Mark Feigin, Beijing is acting as Moscow's lawyer and is trying to save Vladimir Putin. However, it seeks to achieve this at a cost that would be beneficial to China.

“If China and Putin wanted to conquer everyone, Xi would have acted differently. Then there would not be this information about the conversation with Zelensky. Xi Jinping has such plans. China is trying to be smarter in this whole situation,” the human rights activist said.

Russia will become China's next debt slave, says well-known journalist Andrey Okun.

“China understands that partner countries often cannot pay their debts, but still gladly gives them loans. They are going to take important strategic objects for the debts. For example, in 2018 spring, Tajikistan gave China the Upper Kumarg gold deposit with a gold reserve of 50 tons to pay off a $330 million debt,” Mr Okun wrote on Telegram.

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Xi's rhetoric indicates that he is "not inclined to provide Putin with full economic and political support that Russia needs to overcome failures in Ukraine."

“Xi and Putin were presenting the strength of the China-Russia relationship during the March 20 meeting, but in news articles published on March 19, they offered different interpretations of the scope of the future relationship,” the analysts explain.

“Xi Jinping, who had just reconciled Iran with Saudi Arabia, was ready to offer Putin a guarantee of personal salvation in exchange for turning Russia into a colony and China's raw material colony. To a colony, from which all raw materials are pumped out through a corrupt ruler, but at the same time, the metropolis does not bear any responsibility either for the well-being of the citizens of the colony or for its development,” says Russian journalist Yulia Latynina.

“It is perfectly clear who is the 'senior' and who is the 'junior', who is the metropolis and who is the protectorate. Of course, China is quite satisfied with such a system of relations, so it can even 'reward' its loyal vassal with a visit by the overlord and even promise more. Not very much: it’s not worth messing around, but enough to keep the fighting spirit of the vassal and the desire to continue the fight,” Ukrainian political scientist Petro Oleshchuk described the essence of Russian-Chinese relations in this way.

Well-known Ukrainian analyst and journalist Orest Sokhar agrees that Russia is turning into a vassal of the Heavenly Empire.

“The collapse of the Moscow economy because of Western sanctions does not correspond with China’s interests, and the visit of a pro-Western leader in the Kremlin will be a 'strategic failure' for China. Beijing is determined to milk this cow itself, taking care that it does not kick the bucket,” the journalist wrote on Telegram.

Even Russian propagandists started talking about the fact that Russia has no other choice but to become China’s vassal.

“The fact is that Russia, which has entered the 21st century uncompetitive in high-tech industries (this must also be admitted), does not have independent weight in the political arena to directly oppose the United States. We don't really have a choice. Turn either to the West or to the East,” writes Maria Degtereva, stating that the Russian Federation simply has no other choice but to join China.

If you like this article, you can support the website Charter97.org

MULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:

Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL 97 1160 2202 0000 0002 1671 1123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims

You can contact us by the e-mail charter97@gmail.com