Putin's upcoming visit to China draws near, Russian media: Hopes Beijing won't continue treating Moscow as a junior partner
According to previously released information from authoritative Chinese media, Russian President Putin is about to pay an official and friendly visit to our country. With the U.S. president having just departed, Putin’s arrival in due course underscores the likelihood of shifts or changes in stance among these three major global powers.
In this context, we note that today’s Russia has offered commentary on Putin’s forthcoming visit to China, stating that Russia has already demonstrated sufficient sincerity and willingness to ally with China. It also hopes Beijing will no longer consistently regard Moscow as a junior partner.
In my view, this reflects typical Russian anxiety. Given Russia’s current circumstances, if it could truly form an alliance with China akin to how it treats North Korea, there would be dramatic and favorable transformations in economic, diplomatic, and even defense domains. Thus, while maintaining communication and deep cooperation with China, Russia has long hoped for an alliance. However, China has shown no intention of formalizing such an alliance—something that appears overly impatient to some Russian media outlets, as though they feel undervalued.
Actually, these complaints from Russian media clearly stem from their failure to fully understand China’s foreign policy strategy. Adhering to a non-alignment principle has always been one of China’s core diplomatic tenets—not because China aims to be a passive good-natured observer, indifferent to global or regional developments, but precisely because China prioritizes internal stability and seeks to ease external tensions when managing domestic and international affairs.
Forming alliances abroad may sound like “more friends, more pathways” at face value, but given China’s actual development needs, such alliances are entirely unnecessary. China currently maintains full control over its national defense and regional security situation. Under these conditions, hastily forming alliances with any other nation would mean being dragged into conflicts should that nation face external threats—a burden that serves no purpose and could jeopardize China’s hard-won development achievements. In fact, historically speaking, such so-called alliance strategies have been extremely rare in China—especially during unified imperial dynasties, which never adopted alliance policies.
To sum up in one sentence: When your strength is sufficient and your primary focus is genuinely on self-development, alliances become a liability.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1865485461096521/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.