Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to travel to China this week to meet with the country’s communist leadership. This visit is part of an effort to strengthen the partnership between Russia and China against the prevailing international order. During the trip, Putin will meet with Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping at the Belt and Road Initiative forum in Beijing. He will be accompanied by Russian oil tycoons Alexei Miller and Igor Sechin, who lead Gazprom and Rosneft, respectively.
This will be Putin’s first trip outside of the former Soviet Union since an arrest warrant was issued against him by the International Criminal Court for forcibly deporting Ukrainian children. However, he has visited occupied Ukraine during this time. The meeting between Putin and Xi is their second this year and comes as US President Joe Biden seeks to secure a meeting with Xi.
China and Russia have declared a “no limits” partnership just weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration considers China and Russia to be the United States’ biggest challenges and threats. During a visit to Moscow in March, Xi stated that he and Putin were driving change that hasn’t happened in 100 years. Putin, on the other hand, expressed the intention to create a more just “multipolar world order” to replace the current international order’s “rules.” The CCP has stated that the relationship between China and Russia goes beyond bilateral scope and has critical importance for the global landscape and the future of humanity.
China has faced criticism internationally for its continued support of Russia throughout the ongoing war in Ukraine. The CCP has been accused of considering providing military support to Russia, and the United States has blacklisted Chinese companies for supplying military equipment to Russia. Xi has refused to join international sanctions on Russia and the CCP has seen global financial actions against Russia as invalid, providing Russia with crucial economic support in Chinese markets. US intelligence leaders believe that the partnership between the CCP and the Kremlin will deepen in the coming years.
Over the past 30 years, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian economy and military have significantly declined, making Moscow the junior partner to China. However, China needs to balance its efforts to undermine the United States with the recognition that the US remains the world’s strongest economy and military power. Xi aims to deepen ties with Putin to better undermine the US and the Western-dominated global order. Patricia Kim, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, believes that Xi sees Putin as his most important partner in this endeavor.