By Daniel Nardini
With U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war against China, the Chinese government is now turning towards an important ally—Russia. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has met with Russian premier Vladimir Putin and both China and Russia have inked some large agreements. One of them is cooperation on trade. If the United States scales back on trade with China, China will simply turn towards other countries. Another is tourism. Russia, being a vast country with an immense amount of resources, is perfect for not only rich Chinese tourists to go to, but for Chinese companies to invest in and be able to extract all the resources like gold, silver, iron ore, copper, nickel, etc., that the Russians themselves cannot get at. Russia is also the key to getting to Europe since the Chinese can help the Russians with their antiquated railway system. We have to remember that the Chinese have been able to build high-speed rail service not only in China itself but in other parts of Asia under the Chinese government’s “One Road and Belt’ initiative. If Chinese commercial trains can reach Europe directly it can help to undercut American tariffs against Chinese goods.
But the relationship between China and Russia goes deeper than that. This is especially true in military cooperation. Russia may have the better technology in terms of weapons, weapons systems and airplanes, naval ships and tanks, but China has the money. With China’s money, Russia can improve what they have as well as sell their more advanced weapons and weapons systems to China. This poses a threat to the United States. With the two other largest countries in the world working with each other, it leaves the United States virtually alone. Before the tariff war, China off and on worked with Russia over a number of issues including military cooperation. But neither country really trusted each other. Russia was concerned about China stealing its technology, and China was worried about Russia’s territorial ambitions. This has all changed with the United States having put sanctions on Russia (because of the war in the Ukraine) and the U.S. trade war with China. Now the Chinese and Russians see themselves as having more in common than whatever suspicions they have of each other. What this means for the United States is that China and Russia are ganging up against America, and that the United States will have a challenge to not only its armed forces near its territorial waters and possessions but also to American interests in other parts of the world.
The China and Russia “Cooperation”
By Daniel Nardini
But the relationship between China and Russia goes deeper than that. This is especially true in military cooperation. Russia may have the better technology in terms of weapons, weapons systems and airplanes, naval ships and tanks, but China has the money. With China’s money, Russia can improve what they have as well as sell their more advanced weapons and weapons systems to China. This poses a threat to the United States. With the two other largest countries in the world working with each other, it leaves the United States virtually alone. Before the tariff war, China off and on worked with Russia over a number of issues including military cooperation. But neither country really trusted each other. Russia was concerned about China stealing its technology, and China was worried about Russia’s territorial ambitions. This has all changed with the United States having put sanctions on Russia (because of the war in the Ukraine) and the U.S. trade war with China. Now the Chinese and Russians see themselves as having more in common than whatever suspicions they have of each other. What this means for the United States is that China and Russia are ganging up against America, and that the United States will have a challenge to not only its armed forces near its territorial waters and possessions but also to American interests in other parts of the world.