Tuesday 01 Mar 2022 @ 13:38
Chatham House
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Ukraine is severe test of China’s new axis with Russia

EXPERT COMMENT

Beijing will tread carefully, and weigh up whether its strategic alliance with Moscow is worth the cost of this reckless invasion.

President Vladimir Putin’s full military escalation in Ukraine has unsettled his seemingly best friend in international affairs, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who has invested in the bilateral relationship personally and politically.

Beijing’s axis with Moscow was recently strengthened during the 2022 Winter Olympics, with their joint declaration to proclaim ‘their cooperation with no limit’.

The Western foreign affairs community then rushed to conclude that Moscow and Beijing were forming – if one had not already been formed – a ‘strategic alliance’ aimed at destabilising the liberal, rules-based world order. Some in the West assume Beijing will inevitably support Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.

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Original article link: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2022/02/ukraine-severe-test-chinas-new-axis-russia

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