China–Russia relations

China and Russia established diplomatic relations after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and share one of the world's most important foreign relationships. Both nations share interest in energy cooperation, military ties, global stability, and geopolitical alignment in challenging the West.

The two countries share a land border which was demarcated in 1991, and they signed the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation in 2001, which was renewed in June 2021 for five more years. On the eve of a 2013 state visit to Moscow by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin remarked that the two nations were forging a special relationship. China and Russia have enjoyed close relations militarily, economically, and politically, while supporting each other on various global issues. Commentators have debated whether the bilateral strategic partnership constitutes an alliance. Russia and China officially declared their relations "Not allies, but better than allies", although Vladimir Putin reiterated that their relationship is a de facto alliance. Ties have continued to deepen after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Russia increasingly becoming dependent on China since it was hit with large-scale international sanctions. Russian coal exports came under particular pressure in Europe due to the combination of energy transition and sanctions over Ukraine, causing Russia to heavily increase trade on coal exports to China and other Asian countries. The annual trade between China and Russia was 240 billion dollars as of 2023.

History

The relations between China and Russia go back to the 16th century, when the Qing dynasty tried to drive Russian settlers out of Manchuria, ended by the signing of the Treaty of Nerchinsk. The Russian Empire consolidated its control over the Russian Far East in the 19th century, after the annexation of part of Chinese Manchuria (1858–1860).

During the Cold War, China and the USSR were rivals after the Sino-Soviet split in 1961, competing for control of the worldwide Communist movement. There was a serious possibility of a major war between the two nations in the early 1960s; a brief border war took place in 1969. This enmity began to lessen after the death of Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong in 1976, but relations were poor until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

On 23 December 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin made his first official visit to China, where he met with CCP general secretary Jiang Zemin and Chinese president Yang Shangkun.Chronology of principal defence and security-related agreements and initiatives involving the Russian Federation and Asian countries, 1992–99 In December 1996, at the end of Chinese Premier Li Peng's visit to Moscow, Russia and China issued a joint communique pledging to build an "equal and reliable partnership."

During the 1990s, cooperation between China and Russia was facilitated by the two countries' mutual desires to balance the influence of the United States and establish a multi-polar international system.

In 2001, the close relations between the two countries were formalized with the '' Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation'', a twenty-year strategic, economic, and – controversially and arguably – an implicit military treaty. A month before the treaty was signed, the two countries joined with junior partners Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Still active as of 2022, the organization is expected to counter the growing influence of the United States military outreach program in Central Asia. The PRC is currently a key purchaser and licensee of Russian military equipment, some of which have been instrumental in the modernization of the People's Liberation Army. The PRC is also a main beneficiary of the Russian Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil pipeline.

During the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, China opposed Russia's infringement on Georgia's sovereignty. Citing principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and global order, China used its influence in the SCO to prevent the organization from supporting Russia.

When China attempted to build closer relations with Russia in 2013, the Russian government initially had reservations. However, the United States sanctions against Russia for its 2014 annexation of Crimea helped push Russia to a warmer relationship with China. Although some Chinese banks and companies refused to fully cooperate with Russia because of the concern that secondary sanctions might be applied to them, Russian-Chinese economic ties grew once China itself faced sanctions concerns.

Liam Carson, an emerging European economist at Capital Economics, said in 2019:

By 2019, both nations had serious grievances with the United States. For China, the issues were control of the South China Sea, trade policies, and technology policy. For Russia, the main issue was severe economic penalties imposed by the U.S. and Europe to punish its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. China and Russia do, however, differ on some policies. China does not recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea, and Russia does not support China's claims in the South China Sea. Nevertheless, China and Russia currently enjoy the best relations they have had since the late 1950s. Although they have no formal alliance, the two countries do have an informal agreement to coordinate diplomatic and economic moves, and build up an alliance against the United States. Yaroslav Trofimov, the chief foreign-affairs correspondent of ''The Wall Street Journal'', argued in 2019:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some tensions arose within the Chinese-Russian relationship. For example, in October 2020, relying on the pretext of coronavirus allegedly found on the exterior of fish packaging, China greatly reduced the import of Russian seafood, causing a substantial price decrease in Russian seafood. Chinese restrictions on Russian cargo traffic at border crossings also led to tensions, including a drivers' strike.

In February 2024, Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning declined to comment on the death of Russian opposition politician and political prisoner Alexei Navalny, describing it as "Russia's internal affair".

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Xi and Putin met on 4 February 2022, during a massive Russian build-up of force on the Ukrainian border, with the two expressing that the two countries are nearly united in their anti-US alignment and that both nations shared "no limits" to their commitments. Western Intelligence reports said that China had asked Russia to wait to invade Ukraine until after the Beijing Olympics ended on 20 February. Shortly before the invasion, Chinese media would repeat Russian statements that Russia's troops were being pulled away from the border with Ukraine.

On 22 February, two days prior to the invasion of Ukraine, a leaked post '' The Beijing News''' Horizon News on Weibo detailed instructions on how to report on the Russo-Ukrainian war; the post asked editors to monitor unfavorable comments, to only use tags shared by Chinese state media and stated "Do not post anything unfavorable to Russia or pro-Western. Let me review your words before posting". On 25 February 2022, one day following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin told Xi during a phone call that Russia is eager to engage in high-level negotiations with Ukraine, according to China's foreign ministry.

According to the Associated Press in April 2022, China refused to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, repeated Russian propaganda about the war, opposed economic sanctions against Russia, and abstained or sided with Russia in UN votes on the war in Ukraine.

In March 2022, Russia added Taiwan to a list of foreign states and territories that commit "unfriendly actions" against its military invasion of Ukraine. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has assured Vladimir Putin of China's support on Russian "sovereignty and security" in June.

In April 2022, in an interview with the Italian newspaper ''Corriere della Sera'', Russian political scientist Sergey Karaganov, who is considered close to Vladimir Putin, said that Russia "will be more integrated and more dependent on China", further stating that "Chinese are our close allies and friends and the biggest source of Russian strength after Russian people themselves."

In June 2022, Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping had a call with Putin where he reaffirmed support for Russia on security issues while saying that "all parties should responsibly push for a proper settlement of the Ukraine crisis".

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that China has the economic leverage to pressure Putin to end the war, adding "I'm sure that without the Chinese market for the Russian Federation, Russia would be feeling complete economic isolation. That's something that China can do – to limit the trade ith Russiauntil the war is over." In August 2022, Zelenskyy said that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, CCP general secretary Xi Jinping had refused all his requests for direct talks with him.

In February 2023, Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov

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