Biden and Putin kick off Geneva summit 5:38
(CNN) -
Russia and China could not stop boasting of their "unbreakable friendship" ahead of Russia's President Vladimir Putin's summit with his American counterpart Joe Biden.
Relations between Moscow and Beijing are at an "unprecedented level," Russian President Vladimir Putin told NBC in an interview broadcast Monday, emphasizing that he does not consider China a threat.
China is a friendly nation.
It has not declared us enemies, as the United States has done, "he said.
On Tuesday, Beijing returned the praise in kind, declaring that "the sky is the limit" for bilateral cooperation.
"China and Russia are united like a mountain, and our friendship is unshakable," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a news conference.
In recent years, the two countries have grown closer to each other amid their deteriorating relations with the West.
For Russia, a pivot to the world's second-largest economy was a natural solution to sanctions for its 2014 annexation of Crimea and forays into eastern Ukraine. And Beijing was more than happy to embrace closer ties with its neighbor. from the North as tensions rose in almost every respect with the United States.
ANALYSIS |
Insults fly as Biden takes on Russia and China
Relations between Russia and the United States are so deteriorated that only a summit can fix them, says Putin spokesman
Alliance between Russia and China, dangerous for the US?
9:41
The China-Russia strategic alliance
The economy has been at the center of the strategic partnership between China and Russia.
Bilateral trade exceeded $ 100 billion in 2018, and the goal is to double it by 2024. The two countries have also deepened energy cooperation, including a $ 400 billion agreement to transport natural gas from Russia and multiple joint projects. of nuclear power plants in China.
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Moscow is also Beijing's largest arms supplier, providing 70% of China's arms imports, between 2014 and 2018.
On the diplomatic front, Beijing and Moscow have often sided with each other in the United Nations Security Council, countering the US and its allies on issues like Syria, while rejecting Western criticism of the human rights violations.
But their tactical alliance has grown more urgent since Biden took office committed to asserting America's leadership on the world stage.
Under Biden, Washington has repeatedly singled out Russia and China as the biggest threats to the rules-based international order, as it rallies allies to unite in an apparent ideological battle between democracy and autocracy.
In recent days, discussions on how to counter the authoritarian actions of Russia and China were prominently featured both at the G7 summit in England and at the NATO meeting in Brussels.
In response, Moscow and Beijing have presented a strong united front against the criticism, as well as what they say are "attempts to destroy" their relationship.
"We have to tell those who are trying by all means to drive a wedge between China and Russia that any attempt to undermine China-Russia relations is doomed," Zhao, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
ANALYSIS |
China and Russia want to vaccinate the developing world before the West.
That has brought them closer than ever
What separates China and Russia
But despite the demonstration of unity, a lot of friction potential remains.
Trade relations between the two countries are deeply unbalanced.
China is Russia's largest trading partner, while Russia is a much less important trading partner for China.
Most of Russia's exports to China comprise natural resources and raw materials, in exchange for imports of manufactured goods.
There could also be geopolitical concerns.
Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China has expanded its economic influence in Central Asia, an area long considered by Russia as its sphere of influence.
Beyond official relations, the Russian public is becoming increasingly wary of Chinese investment in Siberia and the Russian Far East, where Chinese projects have stoked resentment and backlash from locals.
Observers have long viewed China-Russia ties as a partnership of convenience driven by geopolitical and economic interests, after the two powers abandoned their past animosity.
In the late 1950s, relations between Moscow and Beijing became strained and later characterized by deep mistrust, ideological disputes, and border conflicts.
And now, in the absence of shared core values, common ideologies, and a formal military alliance, it remains to be seen how deep and lasting their ties will be.
In Asia
A total of 28 Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ) on Tuesday, the largest incursion since the autonomous island began to regularly report such actions last year.
An entire team of workers at a fast food restaurant in Pakistan was allegedly detained over the weekend after rejecting police officers' demands for free hamburgers.
In Japan, some volunteers for the Tokyo Olympics are concerned about the risk of contracting COVID-19, amid uncertainty about whether they will be vaccinated before the games.
Photo of the day
China will put three astronauts into orbit Thursday on its first manned mission in nearly five years.
The three men, between 45 and 56 years old, will live for three months in the central module of the Chinese space station that is still under construction.
While aboard the space station, called Tiangong or Heavenly Palace, the men will install equipment and conduct a series of technical tests.
A drop in spending could be hurting China's recovery
A coronavirus outbreak in southern China and economic uncertainty among consumers may be complicating the country's recovery efforts.
Movie ticket sales during the holiday weekend of the Duanwu Festival, known in English as the Dragon Boat Festival, plummeted about 40% compared to the same period, in 2019, according to official data.
It was the worst box office performance for the holidays, since 2015.
And while 89 million people traveled within China's borders during the holidays, or about the same as during the pre-virus level of 2019, they did not spend as much as they used to.
Official data showed that total tourism spending was only 75% of that, in 2019.
Covid-19: partial closure of Guangzhou due to new outbreak 0:56
Chinese state media partly attributed the poor box office results to community lockdowns in the heavily populated Guangdong region, imposed to control a coronavirus outbreak that began last month.
The outbreak has also affected other industries, including shipping, as Guangdong is home to several major ports.
There may be other factors at play as well.
Viewers on Chinese social media complained about a lack of Hollywood blockbusters to watch over the weekend.
And the general drop in tourism spending could also be attributed to uncertainty about the economy.
A nationwide survey conducted by the People's Bank of China in the first quarter of 2021 showed that only 22% of urban residents who responded were willing to spend more.
Almost half of the respondents wanted to save more.
China has emerged from the pandemic at a faster rate than other major economies, thanks to strong global demand for its products and a state-led investment boom in infrastructure and real estate projects.
But consumption has recovered at a slower rate than expected.
In April, retail sales increased about 18% from a year earlier, well below the consensus forecast of 25%.
It also slowed from the 34% increase in March.
The labor market has not fully recovered either.
The economy added about 4.4 million new jobs in the first four months, down from the 4.6 million recorded during the same period in 2019.
Pressure grows for 2022 Beijing boycott
A growing number of Western parliaments are denouncing China's actions in Xinjiang as genocide, further isolating Beijing diplomatically and increasing the likelihood of a partial political boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics.
On Tuesday, the Belgian Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee passed a non-binding motion saying that Uighurs were at "grave risk" of genocide as a result of the Chinese government's actions in the western region of the country.
A vote on the resolution is expected in the legislature on July 1.
"Our little country is great, because we dare to save a little humanity," said Samuel Cogolati, member of the Belgian Parliament, on his official Twitter.
Belgian lawmakers are the latest Western MPs to debate a motion condemning Beijing's actions in Xinjiang, where human rights experts say up to one million Uighurs have been detained in a vast system of re-education camps.
On July 10, the Senate of the Czech Republic declared that the Chinese government was committing genocide in Xinjiang.
On May 20, the Lithuanian Parliament passed a similar non-binding resolution.
In all, five Western parliaments have passed non-binding official motions using the word genocide in connection with China's Xinjiang policies, including the UK, Canada and the Netherlands, and Belgium is likely to follow.
In January, the US government officially designated China's human rights abuses in Xinjiang as genocide.
But the biggest blow may yet be to come for the Chinese government.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on June 7 that he was consulting with US allies on a "shared approach" for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, in line with Biden's push. for a united front in action against China.
And the pressure for a diplomatic boycott is mounting.
The Czech Senate backed the idea in its declaration of genocide in Xinjiang last week.
The US Competition and Innovation Act, which was passed by the Senate on June 8, included a clause that would make it "the policy of the United States" to participate in a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Olympics.
China Geopolitics Russia