About a month ago, Russia and China issued a statement declaring mutual support and amity. Xi and Putin met at the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics in early February, and issued a joint statement declaring that their countries’ friendship “has no bounds.”
This important pact shifts the balance of world power. It was virtually ignored by the mainstream media but has important Macroeconomic implications.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/russia-and-chin…
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/world/asia/china-russia-u…
**‘Abrupt Changes’: China Caught in a Bind Over Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine**
**China has presented itself as a defender of sovereign independence. But its reluctance to denounce Russia’s aggression forces it into an awkward position.**
**By Chris Buckley, The New York Times, Feb. 25, 2022**
**...**
**More than most countries, China has upheld the idea that national sovereignty trumps other concerns, including human rights standards. China’s modern concept of sovereignty — “zhuquan” in Chinese — developed from the 19th century when Western powers subjugated the Qing rulers....**
**Beijing’s muscular notion of how far its sovereignty reaches has become one of the main drivers — and trouble points — of Chinese policy.**
**Beijing has maintained that Taiwan, the self-governed island that has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, must eventually be united with China, even if armed force is needed. Beijing has made expansive claims to islands and waters across the South China Sea. It has also been locked in clashes with India over disputed borderlands....** [end quote]
Not to mention Tibet.
China’s position is that it has sovreignty over all the countries that it claims as China. I’m surprised that China hasn’t moved to annex Taiwan while the world’s attention is focused on Putin’s attack on Ukraine.
Putin’s claim that Ukraine isn’t and never was an independent country but was always a part of Russia may be aimed more at China than the West. Our media is so self-centered. But Putin needs to keep China strongly allied since many Russian armed forces have been diverted from the Russian-Chinese to Ukraine.
A key principle of the United Nations is sovereignty and self-determination of nations. Both China and Russia claim that they aren’t attacking nations – they are resorbing their own sovereign territory.
Wendy