Xi Jinping met his internationally isolated Russian counterpart in Beijing on Wednesday against the backdrop of China’s biggest diplomatic event of the year, underlining the close relationship between two leaders amid the war in Ukraine.
The Chinese president, addressing delegates at the belt and road initiative (BRI) forum, spoke out against international sanctions during his opening speech.
“Ideological confrontation, geopolitical rivalry and bloc politics are not the choice for us, but we stand against economic sanctions, economic coercions, and decoupling and supply chain disruptions,” Xi said. The US Commerce Department on Tuesday had expanded controls on chip and technology exports to China amid tensions with Beijing.
Xi cast China as a leader in fostering international cooperation through its BRI projects, which has involved more than 150 countries and 30 international businesses since its launch a decade ago.
“China can only do well when the world is doing well. When China does well, the world will get even better,” the leader said at the forum’s opening ceremony that sought to project Xi’s vision for a “new era”.
Vladimir Putin, speaking after Xi, praised the “successes” of “our Chinese friends”, saying China’s success was “really important for us”. The president added he looked forward to seeing China succeed in the future of its development initiatives.
Shortly before Putin starting speaking, a handful of European delegates, including former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, walked out of the room, according to Reuters.
Putin and Xi are due to hold in-depth talks on the sidelines of the forum on Wednesday.
The last time that Putin visited the Chinese capital, in 2022, he was preparing to invade Ukraine a mere three weeks later.
Analysts believe that Xi was caught off-guard by that invasion, which has caused problems for the Chinese leader as he tries to rebuild his relationship with western trade partners, particularly in Europe, after three years of zero-Covid restrictions and closed borders.
However, China’s support for Russia since the start of the invasion has been largely unwavering. Although Beijing has tried to position itself as a peacemaker in Ukraine, China’s continuing economic and political support for Russia has made its commitment to Moscow clear.
Russia has not officially signed up to China’s BRI, but Putin attended the previous two summits, in 2017 and 2019, and has benefited from China’s economic support, especially since the start of the war. Trade between the two countries increased nearly 30% in the first nine months of this year, compared with the same period in 2022.
Although China is not thought to have provided Russia with lethal weapons, it has provided key technology and hardware that have been a lifeline for the Russian economy – and military efforts.
Last month the US Commerce Department imposed trade restrictions on 11 Chinese companies, accusing some of them of supplying drone-making equipment to Russia.
A survey published earlier this year by a Russian pollster found that 63% of industrial companies had switched to Chinese suppliers in order to maintain their supplies of sanctioned goods.
Still, the war has been painful for China. Analysis published earlier this year by Janis Kluge of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and Joseph Webster of the Atlantic Council estimated that the economic chaos caused by the war, including surging inflation, will cost Chinese GDP around $140bn, or about 0.7%, by December 2023, compared with 2021 forecasts.
“The two sides have dramatically deepened their dependency since the start of the war. China is now indisputably Russia’s most important trade partner and provides key civilian and even dual-use military goods that enable the Kremlin’s war effort,” Webster said.
And China has paid a diplomatic price, too. Western leaders have appealed to Xi to put pressure on Putin to end the conflict, seemingly to no avail. The resulting strain has illustrated for China the benefits of a “multipolar” world order, a buzzword used by Xi and Putin to invoke an international system unmoored for what they say is the US-led hegemony.
“Xi and Putin, for now, share common short-term interests and a deep antipathy for constitutional democracy,” Webster said.
This week’s BRI forum was a chance for Xi to make that case to the dozens of global south countries who have benefited from China’s largesse since the initiative was launched 10 years ago. Many of those countries have not taken a stance in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
In an interview with Chinese state media published over the weekend, Putin praised the expansion of the Brics group of emerging economies. China had backed the addition of six new countries to the bloc in August. “This is a manifestation of … forming a multipolar world,” Putin said, in an interview with Chinese broadcaster CCTV. “No one wants to be a vassal of another country”.
As the focus of BRI spending shifts towards targeted projects and slimmed down investments, rather than the gushing tap of loans that was flowing in the BRI’s heyday in 2015, Xi will make his appeal to BRI countries on ideological as well as political grounds. Putin is a vital ally in this rhetoric, as someone who echoes China’s criticisms of Washington’s dominance on the world stage.
