Xi heads to Moscow for talks with Putin
Ukraine war, economic partnership, antipathy to US hegemony on agenda
Chinese President Xi Jinping begins a three-day state visit to Moscow today giving embattled Russian President Vladimir Putin a boost on the world stage.
Xi’s visit signals the Chinese leader’s willingness to align his country with Russia against the United States and European nations in a new era of conflict and polarization that is beginning to look like a second Cold War.
“The grim outlook in China is that we are entering this era of confrontation with the US, the gloves are off, and Russia is an asset and a partner in this struggle,” Alexander Gabuev, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The Washington Post.
Beijing is portraying Xi’s trip as a "journey of friendship, cooperation and peace." The two sides plan to sign bilateral economic and trade agreements. There will be discussions of oil and gas supplies and ways of evading Western economic sanctions, analysts say. Beyond that, it is unclear what Xi hopes to accomplish by traveling to Moscow besides generating geopolitical optics.
Putin and Xi will seek to show they are “powerful partners” at a time of strained relations with Washington, Joseph Torigian, an associate professor at American University in Washington, told the Associated Press.
“China can signal that it could even do more to help Russia, and that if relations with the United States continue to deteriorate, they could do a lot more to enable Russia and help Russia in its war against Ukraine,” Torigian said.
Xi is promoting Beijing’s proposed 12-point framework for reaching a cease fire in Ukraine, but the plan lacks substance and sides with Russia by blaming NATO expansion and US weapon supplies for the conflict. China has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the ongoing Russian bombardment of Ukrainian population centers.
“Since last year, there has been an all-round escalation of the Ukraine crisis,” Xi wrote in an op-ed published in China’s state-run media ahead of the visit.
A commentary in the China People’s Daily sought to portray the US, which has been supporting Ukraine militarily, as the primary obstacle to peace. “The United States is apparently not willing to see a political solution to the crisis, nor does it want to see that both sides can settle for peace.”
Cover for Putin
In the West, Xi’s trip is seen as providing Putin diplomatic cover for his invasion of Ukraine and as an attempt to validate Russia’s battlefield gains before they are reversed by an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Putin visited the captured Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Saturday night, driving through the ruined streets on an impromptu tour. Russia seized the city in May after a months-long assault and brutal siege.
Xi to do virtual meeting with Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed China’s willingness to engage in talks and expressed an openness to meeting with Xi by video conference after his Moscow trip. Zelenskyy has made clear Ukraine requires Russia's withdrawal from Ukrainian territory before it will entertain peace talks.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) last week issued an arrest warrant for Putin over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia since the start of the war and for military targeting of civilians.
Xi’s call with Zelenskyy would be an effort to “balance the negative impact that his visit to Moscow will have” on China’s relations with the west, Bonnie Glaser, the director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund, told The Guardian newspaper.
Former Taiwan president to visit China
Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou plans to visit China later this month. Ma will lead a group of students to Shanghai and other cities, and also pay his respects at his family’s ancestral hometown from March 27 to April 7, a spokesman announced. Ma’s family came from the central province of Hunan.
Ma was president of Taiwan from 2008-2016. This would be his first visit to mainland China. Beijing is not on his itinerary.
“The trip won’t be too political,” Hsiao Hsu-tsen, who leads a foundation for Ma said at a briefing on Monday. “If Ma can make efforts promoting cross-strait peace, it’s a responsibility that he can’t relinquish.”
China building warships
Toshi Yoshihara of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments tells CBS’s 60 Minutes in a segment aired in the US on Sunday night that China’s navy is now building more warships than the US navy.
The US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday told 60 Minutes the US Navy is “still in a position to prevail” in the event of a conflict. “But that's not blind confidence. We are concerned with the trajectory that China's on, with China's behavior,” he said.
Gilday is among senior Navy leaders who have said in other forums they expect to fight a limited war with China within the coming decade.
Blinken on Capitol HIll
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to present the State Department’s budget request. He will be called upon by House and Senate lawmakers to comment on the war in Ukraine and the Biden administration’s strategy for winning.
There are doubts in Congress about funding an open-ended conflict with Russia which is seen gaining advantage if the war is allowed to grind on in its current stalemate. Some lawmakers are pushing the Biden administration to provide Ukraine with heavier weapons, like F-16 combat jets, in order to bring the war to a quicker end.