SEVERAL LIFELINES FOR RUSSIA
Even if Mr Trump were more determined to use America’s significant economic leverage in pursuit of peace in Ukraine, China is unlikely to bow to any pressure.
On the contrary, the joint communique issued after Mr Li and Mr Mishustin’s meeting was unequivocal in reaffirming that “China and Russia will always regard each other as priority partners and … properly respond to external challenges,” including by making “all necessary efforts to cooperate with each other in opposing unilateral coercive measures”.
The joint communique also repeated the now customary formula that “China supports Russia in safeguarding its own security and stability, national development and prosperity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and opposes interference in Russia’s internal affairs by external forces”.
Rhetoric to one side, however, there is nothing to indicate a major step-change in Chinese support for Russia. Beijing continues to provide Moscow with several lifelines.
China remains one of the major importers of Russian oil and gas which provides much-needed foreign income for the Russian treasury. China is also reportedly a major supplier of so-called dual-use goods, including semiconductors and machine tools that are critical to sustaining Russia’s defence industrial base.
A database of joint military exercises between Russia and China has recorded over 117 of them since 2003, with one-third over the last three-and-a-half years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/china-russia-ukraine-war-support-oil-sanctions-5462256
