The Chinese leader is promoting a “Global Security Initiative” announced in April after Washington, Japan, Australia and India formed the Quad in response to Beijing’s more assertive foreign policy. Xi gave few details, but US officials protest that he echoes Russian arguments in support of Moscow’s attack on Ukraine. Xi, 69, is due to meet Putin in Uzbekistan this week at a summit of the eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which also includes Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan. “China and Russia share the same stance in opposing the Western practice of imposing sanctions and overthrowing other countries’ regimes,” said Li Xin, director of the Institute of European and Asian Studies at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. Putin and Xi will hold a one-on-one meeting on Thursday and discuss Ukraine ahead of the next day’s security summit, the Russian president’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Usakov, told reporters in Moscow. “The issue will be thoroughly discussed during the meeting,” Usakov said. Xi’s trip at a time when his government is urging the Chinese public to avoid overseas travel as part of its “zero COVID” strategy underscores the importance for the ruling Communist Party of asserting China’s role as a regional leader. The meeting takes Xi abroad as the party prepares for a congress in October at which it is expected to break with political tradition and try to award itself a third five-year term as leader. That suggests Xi, China’s most powerful leader since at least the 1980s, is confident he doesn’t need to stay home to make political deals. It may also help advance his position among nationalists in the ruling party. Beijing-Moscow relations were frosty during the Soviet era, but the two sides have developed political and trade ties since the late 1990s. They share few common interests, but are fueled by a common frustration with US dominance in world affairs and Chinese demand for Russian oil and gas. Xi’s administration has refused to criticize Putin’s attack on Ukraine. He accuses the United States of provoking the conflict. “China has adopted a well-balanced approach to the Ukrainian crisis, clearly expressing its understanding of the reasons that prompted Russia to launch the special military operation,” said Usakov, a Putin adviser. Xi said the two governments had friendship “without limits” when the Russian leader attended the Winter Olympics in Beijing before the February 24 attack on Ukraine. The two governments have no alliance and have different interests in Europe, said Wang Yiwei, an international relations expert at Renmin University in Beijing. He said the “no-limits” language is meant to give them leverage in dealing with the West on Taiwan and other issues. “This is a deterrent,” Wang said. He said China wants an independent foreign policy: “If we put China and Russia too close, it’s not necessarily good for China.” Russia voiced its support for Beijing amid tensions with the United States after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, the self-governing island republic that the Communist Party claims as part of its territory. China has sent 2,000 troops and three warships to take part in a military exercise this month in the Russian Far East, Vostok 2022. On his way to Uzbekistan, Xi was due to pay a one-day visit to Kazakhstan, another oil and gas supplier to China, to meet with President Kashim-Zomart Tokayev. The two sides are likely to discuss “turbulence in the global economy” and “the future of energy markets,” Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vasilenko said. Pope Francis is due to be in Kazakhstan at the same time as Xi, but there was no indication that they might meet. On his flight, the Pope was asked about a possible meeting and replied: “I have no news about that. But I’m always ready to go to China.” Xi has participated in other global gatherings via video link. His only trip outside mainland China since early 2020 was a one-day visit to Hong Kong to mark the 25th anniversary of the end of British colonial rule. Other SCO governments are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Iran and Afghanistan are observers. “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is attracting more countries with a new principle that is completely different from the West in handling relations between nations,” Li said. China sees the group, founded under Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao, as a counterweight to US alliances across East Asia and the Indian Ocean. Beijing has taken part in multi-governmental military exercises, showing off its rapidly expanding forces. Relations with Washington, Europe, Japan and India are increasingly strained over trade, technology, security, Taiwan, Hong Kong, human rights and territorial disputes at sea and in the Himalayas. . In April, Xi said the “Global Security Initiative” was intended to “uphold the principle of indivisibility of security” and “oppose building national security on the basis of insecurity in other countries.” Despite the soft language, US officials and Asian security analysts see Xi’s initiative as vindication for China, with the world’s second largest military after the United States, to dominate the region. A State Department spokesman, Ned Price, said in April that it appeared to be “parroting some of what we heard from the Kremlin” as a justification for the attack on Ukraine. “This is a blatant attempt to seek Asian hegemony by China,” Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan of the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank, wrote in The Diplomat. It is “designed to advance China’s interests in great power competition with the United States.” In a meeting in July, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, that China would “strengthen strategic communication” with Moscow on international security, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement. This will “demonstrate the core dynamics of China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership” and “the practice of a true multilateral relationship,” the ministry said.
Isachenkov reported from Moscow. AP researcher Yu Bing in Beijing and AP writers Ken Moritsugu in Beijing and Kostya Manenkov in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, contributed to this report.
