And Now Comes Russia: New Sino-Russian Partnership on the Horizon
Add Russia to the growing list of countries with unsavory regimes being courted by China.
The People’s Daily Online is reporting that Chinese and Russian “companies” are expected to sign contracts worth more than $4.3 billion during President Hu Jintao’s visit to Russia next week. One of the larger deals expected to go through is between the two country’s railway authorities on the transport of crude oil.
According to the People’s Daily, the purpose of Hu’s trip is to “strengthen political trust and push forward the economic and trade partnership.” Russia is already one of the largest providers of natural gas to China, and has plans to pipe in some 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China each year, according to Russian Ambassador to China Sergei Razov. Russia is also in the process of constructing a 2,800 km-long crude oil pipeline to China.
The expanded bilateral economic ties are carrying over to the security sphere. The China Foreign Ministry announced today that China and Russia will hold a joint military drill in Russia this year aimed at “increasing collaboration to fight terrorism in the region.” I’m not sure which terrorists they are talking about here — Chechens, Uyghurs, Osama Bin Laden? This sounds more like a thinly veiled pretext to increase security cooperation and coordination between the two countries, which has serious implications for the United States. A robust Sino-Russian security pact could threaten US interests in Central and East Asia and counterbalance the strength of the US-Japanese alliance.
The US needs a strategy to entice China away from these types of deals, because what we’re doing right now isn’t working. China has every reason to join hands with the Russia’s and Sudan’s of the world: China desperately needs energy–its entire diplomatic strategy is based around this fundamental need–and it is an unfortunate (but not coincidental) fact that the world’s energy resources rest in the hands of troubled governments. How is the world’s superpower going to change China’s calculation on these matters? This is not a moral issue but a political one. Where is the political strategy, the carrots and the sticks, to help China make diplomatic and security decisions that are more beneficial to US interests? I just don’t see this kind of political leadership coming from the Bush Administration in the next two years.
March 22, 2007 at 4:03 am
As you point out, cooperation between Russia and China may threaten America’s dominance. But what gives America the right to bully the Chinese into sacrificing their own interests to those of the U.S?
March 22, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Well, welcome back!
The part where China should stay away from making deals with people that kill their own people…gives Democracy’s the upperhand in this area. That is until Bush came along and blew our reputation temporarily. Not to mention it is in our own national interest to make sure that we don’t get a real “axis of evil” running headlong into our world. We could- America that is- go to Darfur and give the bad guys arms and have them guard us while we take their oil and they commit mass murder like China is doing…you know mind our own business. But I think America has and is catching on to big business with no conscience. We don’t like what we see and the world is getting smaller and smaller with the net. It will be harder for China, Russia or any big American corporations to do such deeds without being noticed. So if you think it is okay for the Chinese to link up with these nasty people Dave then well maybe you belong in the class with Dick Cheney & Company…because I am pretty sure deep down in Cheney’s heart???, he really only cares about his pocket book.
March 22, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Gen. Pace is in China now…I have been watching this problem with China/Russia grow for some time when everybody was still yelling terrorists…they were quietly growing stronger off our weaknesses. That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what moves are made.
March 22, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Dave,
Agreed, the US has no right to “bully” the Chinese into giving up their own interests. But that’s not what I suggested doing; futhermore, I’m not sure how capable the US is of bullying China right now. Do you suggest the US should just sit back and watch how it all unfolds?
March 22, 2007 at 7:39 pm
@Lisa,
I don’t consider it okay, as such, for China not to boycott totalitarian governments, but I don’t see how the U.S. has the moral authority to tell it to do so. The U.S. and its allies support governments with atrocious human rights records in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Israel, Pakistan and elsewhere. Even if it behaved angelically, though, the U.S. is just one country, and has no authority to police the 6 billion people who have no say over its actions.
@Ben Landy,
Perhaps I misinterpreted phrases like “the political strategy, the carrots and the sticks, to help China make diplomatic and security decisions that are more beneficial to US interests”. Of course, the U.S. can and will try to influence other countries, as all countries do. But ultimately China is its own country with its own interests, and if it makes its own decisions it seems harsh to label it as a problem that America must solve.
March 22, 2007 at 10:16 pm
It is true what you say Dave and I understand why we do some of it but not all of it. I personally don’t want to tell any country what it can do but would rather see them along with us strive to push forward to be better people. What we all do in this world is try to look after our own interests. But I really don’t want to have our country living with a communist threat in the future because of mistakes made today… That is why I think strong diplimacy is necessary now. And while nobody I know wants to tell another country what to do, I do think we should always be prepared to protect ourselves should something happen. And no more pre-emptive wars! Like Ben says, I am not sure what we can do but we have to try to keep our interests secure. I like democracy… plus I don’t think I could learn Chinese anyway…
March 24, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Dave, my analysis of and recommendation for a “political strategy…” is not meant to suggest that China is obliged to change its behavior or policies — certainly not because it’s not the best thing for the US. [If only the world worked that way, so many policymakers think]. In fact, there’s a reason China is pursuing these kinds of deals with Russia et al–they’ve devised a good foreign policy strategy that benefits their own national interest. By all means they should pursue those interests.
My main point is that US interests, in this case, differ from those of China. Therefore, it may be worth engaging China to see if the US can secure a different outcome than the one we are currently seeing.
Perhaps I should be more careful with labeling “problem” behavior, or, with getting wrapped up in the American perspective on these issues. Certainly, for China, this deal is a nice development — and one pregnant with historical signficance.
March 24, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Lisa,
I hear there’s some pretty decent Chinese-language translation software on the net already
April 9, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Good site!!!
April 25, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Thank You