China-Russia axis

Insights from Alicja Bachulska.

While Chinese analysts – and likely the government – recognize the weaknesses of the Putin regime, Beijing is unlikely to fundamentally reassess its alignment with Moscow in the near term.

Africa and the Middle East provide conducive conditions for China and Russia to advance their shared and separate agendas.  

Do China’s capacities match the long shadow it projects on the global community? And what are the risks that China is ready to take in its international endeavors?

Anyone seriously considering China playing a role as peacemaker in Ukraine needs to wrestle with its constant and overt declarations of “unswerving” partnership with Russia.

Insights from Marcin Kaczmarski.

Xi Jinping’s personal investment in Sino-Russian relations could produce an outcome contradictory to a purely interests-based assessment.

Washington needs to enact the concept of “strategic sequencing” to avoid fighting a two-front war against nuclear-armed rivals.

While the Putin-Xi friendship is important, it mostly oils the wheels of a relationship driven by longer-term structural trends.

Insights from Sarah Kirchberger.

The question is not whether China will continue to hang on to its strategic partnership with Russia, but how it will manage it.

Russia won’t sacrifice its ties to India to please China – but Moscow also won’t back New Delhi against Beijing.