China supports Russia in war, but it is not relationship of equals – Pentagon

The US Defence Department analysts point to China's political, diplomatic and limited military support for Russia amidst Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but add that Beijing's relationship with Moscow is marked by strategic distrust.

Source: This follows from the Pentagon’s report on China policy, quoted by European Pravda

Details: The report suggests that Russia's decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine took China by surprise. Against this background, Beijing sought to maintain its close ties with Moscow while promoting its own image of a responsible great power and neutrality.

To this end, China repeats Russian narratives if they coincide with criticism of the United States, refrains from condemning Russia's actions or using the word "war" to refer to them, and also cooperates with Moscow on international platforms such as the UN or the BRICS.

In the context of providing Russia with economic and military assistance, China, the report says, seeks to "balance its strategic partnership with Russia while avoiding the reputational or economic costs" that may arise in the case of arms supplies.

At the same time, the data from the Russian customs confirms that companies in the Russian Federation bought dual-use products in China and "some minor military items to Russian military end users, such as small arms, spare parts, navigation equipment, and protective gear".

At the same time, according to the compilers of the Pentagon report, Sino-Russian relations are "still colored by latent tensions and strategic mistrust" due to the historical experience of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, which enjoyed the advantages of a weaker China.

"Despite normalization of Sino-Soviet relations in 1989 and the resolution of longstanding border disputes, China remains suspicious of Russia’s intentions. The CCP still draws on Russia’s past humiliation of China—such as the signing of unjust border treaties that ceded large swaths of Chinese territory to the Russians Far East—as a source of nationalism. For Russia, enduring structural inequities, such as geography and its declining population in the Far East, stoke fears that China may encroach on its interests, exploit Russian weaknesses, or relegate Russia as the inferior partner in their relationship," the report says.

Background: Earlier, media reported that China, despite its own calls for peace over the past year, has been actively increasing trade in dual-use goods with Russia, helping Moscow, among other things, to import sanctioned Western technologies.

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