After the global shock wave caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, "Le Figaro" explores the complex relationships in history between China, fascinating and source of fantasies, and the West. From Marco Polo's journey to the court of the Great Khan to the meeting between Mao and Nixon, including the opium war.
When, in 1619, the Cossack Ivan Petlin went to Beijing for the first official Russian mission to China, Emperor Ming Wanli did not even deign to grant him an audience. The visitor is only received by court officials who deliver a letter from the sovereign. Petlin returns to Russia with this missive, written in Chinese ... and that no one can decipher.
The anecdote is revealing. These two empires have always sought and gazed at each other. Relations between Russia and China have continuously oscillated between mistrust and cooperation, confrontation and rapprochement. Until the beginning of the 20th century, however, if caution is
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