Chinese President Xi Jinping praised the current period of China-Russia ties as the “best time in history” before his arrival in Moscow for a meeting with counterpart Vladimir Putin, following a phone call with American President Donald Trump in which Xi lamented “negative factors” affecting the bilateral relationship.
The United States recently approved a large arms sale to Taiwan, which China does not recognize as a sovereign nation; labeled China one of the worst human trafficking offenders in the world; sanctioned a Chinese bank for doing business with North Korea; and ran a “Freedom of Navigation Operation” (FONOP) in the South China Sea, near a region China illegally claims as its own.
As the Trump administration ramps up pressure on China to follow international territorial and human rights norms, China and Russia have expanded their cooperation. According to Chinese state outlet Xinhua, Xi said “China-Russia relations are at their ‘best time in history'” and the nations are “each other’s most trustworthy strategic partners.”
“President (Vladimir) Putin and I have built good working relations and a close personal friendship,” Xi told reporters. “I will start a state visit to Russia at the invitation of President Putin. I believe the visit will inject new impetus into the development of the China-Russia relations.”
The state-run newspaper People’s Daily also lavished praised onto the bilateral relationship, calling China-Russia ties “closer than ever” and quoting China’s Ambassador to Russia Li Hui as calling the relationship a “flourishing and ever-lasting friendship.”
Xi is making his sixth visit to Moscow as president. China, the People’s Daily notes, is Russia’s largest trading partner.
Putin returned the good wishes, Russian outlet TASS reported. “As you may know, our relations with China have been evolving in quite a positive way… Indeed, our relations have developed their own unique character,” he explained. “This particularly concerns our cooperation on the international stage where we always seek and find common approaches to the most complex issues and often times speak in one voice.”
The state news outlet Sputnik reported that Putin and Xi will be sharing “an informal meeting in the evening,” as well as an informal dinner. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik that Xi’s visit “will have an unusual format: the leaders will meet with Russian and Chinese representatives of the public, businesses and media, who will briefly inform Putin and Xi Jinping on their cooperation.”
On Tuesday, Xi and Putin are expected to engage in “full-fledged talks.” “There will be bilateral negotiations, the signing of documents. There will be an unusual format, the two leaders will meet with representatives of the public, business circles and media community of Russia and China who will brief Putin and Xi Jinping on their interaction,” Peskov added.
On Sunday, Xi spoke to Trump on the phone in anticipation of their meeting at the G20 Summit this week. The White House noted that Trump “raised the growing threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs” and “reiterated his determination to seek more balanced trade relations with America’s trading partners.”
The People’s Daily, meanwhile, claimed that Xi lamented “negative factors” hurting ties between China and America. Paramount among these concerns is a $1.3 billion arms sale America concluded with Taiwan last week. While Taiwan did not appear in the White House readout of the conversation, the People’s Daily cited it as a point of contention between the two leaders.
In remarks to the press on June 30, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang condemned the sale. “By selling arms to Taiwan, the US has severely violated international law, basic norms governing international relations and the three China-US joint communiqués, and jeopardized China’s sovereignty and security interests. The Chinese side firmly opposes that,” he told reporters.
“Erroneous actions by the US over the recent period of time, its proposed arms sales to Taiwan in particular, run counter to the important consensus at the Mar-a-lago meeting, the overall trend of the China-US relationship, and the interests of the US itself,” Lu added, referring to Xi’s Florida visit this year.
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