Are China and Russia Teaming Up? // A visit by Xi gives two opponents of the U.S. time to talk

Have you ever wanted to show your friend how much you like him but don’t know what to do to show that? Here’s an idea: write an op-ed in his state-controlled newspaper, before coming over to visit him. He might reciprocate with an op-ed in your state-controlled newspaper, and wouldn’t that be nice?

If you found that tip useful, you have Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to thank. The two dictators seem to be trying to increase the warmth between their nations, shown in physical form through a visit last week by Xi to Moscow, and the two leaders laid the ground for that visit through complementary opinion pieces. Xi’s was published in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and Putin’s was put in print in the People’s Daily.

Neither of the two op-eds were fascinating or groundbreaking. Putin’s got into more details than Xi’s did about trade and cooperation in various sectors of the economy, especially energy. His also explicitly called out America, referring to the “US’s policy of simultaneously deterring Russia and China,” saying that it was becoming “ever more fierce and aggressive.” Xi’s op-ed had some oblique references to the US but didn’t mention it directly.

But both of them broadly discussed their countries’ cooperation and friendship, and both of them explicitly discussed China’s “neutral” approach to the Russian invasion of Ukraine—an approach both of them praised.

The question for the outside world is how to understand what this visit and friendship between the two countries—clearly designed to send messages to the West—really mean.