OPINION — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, their 43rd meeting since Xi took over in 2013, was an opportunity for both countries to challenge the U.S. and its leadership role in the global community.
Xi and Putin pledged a “new era” strategic partnership and rivals of the U.S., “an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing discord across the world.” Xi, his third term in power, and Putin, starting his fifth term in power, both challenged the U.S. led global order. Xi spoke of “pushing forward with changes that have not happened in 100 years.”
Credit to Putin for skillfully cultivating a relationship with Xi and getting China to be Russia’s economic lifeline, after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the global condemnation and sanctions that ensued. The invasion of Ukraine immediately followed Putin’s meeting with Xi, at the Beijing winter Olympics, when Xi stated that China had a “no limits” partnership with Russia.
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Although Russia is heavily sanctioned for its invasion of Ukraine, trade with China has increased exponentially, up more than 64 % since 2021, to $240 billion in 2023, using their own currencies for over 90% of the trade. China provides Russia with cars, clothing, raw materials, and other products. Of special concern, however, are the dual-use products China provides to Russia for its war in Ukraine: machine tools and microelectronics, to the tune of about $300 million per month.
This “no limits” partnership is a relatively recent development. In March 1969, China and the then Soviet Union had a military clash on Zhen Bao Island on the Ussuri River, with casualties on both sides and China claiming that a 19th century border agreement with the Soviet Union was part of the “unequal treaties” imposed on China by the West. China was then concerned that the Soviets were planning a nuclear attack on China’s nuclear weapons facilities. Indeed, it was during this tense period that China reached out to the U.S., working with their ally in Pakistan, to arrange for the 1972 visit of President Richard Nixon, for meetings with China’s Mao Zedong.
In 1975, Liaison offices were established in Washington and Beijing and diplomatic relations were formalized on January 1, 1979. China’s Chairman Deng Xiaoping visited the U.S. from January 29-31, 1979, and advised President Jimmy Carter that China was going to teach Vietnam a lesson, which happened on February 18 when China’s People’s Liberation Army entered Vietnam. During this conflict, Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski provided China’s ambassador to the U.S. with updated intelligence on Soviet support to their Vietnamese allies. This, then, was the beginning of expanded cooperation between China and the U.S, in collecting and sharing intelligence on the Soviet Union.
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During this period, the Soviet Union was on the march in Vietnam, Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Yemen, Libya, Czechoslovakia, Nicaragua, Grenada and in 1979, Afghanistan. China cooperated with the U.S. to provide the weaponry and support to the Mujahedin that ultimately defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, with the withdrawal of all Soviet combat troops by the end of 1988.
When Deng took over in 1978, he immediately looked to the U.S. to implement his market-oriented reforms. He encouraged U.S. investment in China and sent thousands of students to the U.S. to help modernize a poor and ravaged country. Foreign direct investment in China increased exponentially, with thousands of U.S. companies investing in China, with over 300,000 Chinese students in U.S. colleges and universities. The U.S. Senate on September 19, 2000, gave China permanent most-favored-nation status, which then paved the way for China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.
With WTO membership and significant U.S. and European Union investment in China, China’s economy experienced rapid and impressive growth. This was facilitated with enlightened economic leadership from Deng and his successors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao and their premiers: Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao,
Hopefully, textbooks in China will accurately document for their students the role the U.S. had — and continues to have — in China’s economic development since 1978 and the tense relationship China had with the Soviet Union and China’s strategic cooperation with the U.S. that led to the defeat of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The irony for many, aware of this contemporary history of U.S. – China relations, is that China is now aligned with a revanchist Russian Federation that has invaded Ukraine, a sovereign nation that, in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Russia provided security assurances to, in exchange for Ukraine’s decision to relinquish the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal. Indeed, the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the seizure of Crimea and the 2022 Russian invasion to capture the whole of Ukraine is a stark reminder that for Putin this is just the beginning; he wants to recreate the Russian Empire and he is now relying on China to help him accomplish this goal.
Yes, there are geopolitical issues between the U.S. and China that must be discussed and resolved, like the tension in the South China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait. Other issues include intellectual property theft and a level playing field for U.S. companies operating China. China’s claim that the U.S. is attempting to contain, isolate and suppress China should also be discussed. These are just some of the issues that will require greater diplomatic involvement. Unfortunately, diplomacy has taken a back seat to many of these issues, which is a grave mistake.
Indeed, there are a multitude of issues for which the U.S. and China could and should cooperate: nuclear proliferation, pandemics, climate change, narcotrafficking, international organized crime, etc. Again, this is where diplomacy should be more actively involved.
Hopefully, China will realize that cooperating with and enabling a Russia that is a pariah state is not in China’s interest.
This piece by Cipher Brief Expert Ambassador Joe DeTrani was first published in The Washington Times
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