Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had his first face-to-face meeting with a world leader in nearly two years yesterday as he hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the pair drawing closer as tensions grow with the West.
Xi has not left China since January 2020, when the country was grappling with its initial COVID-19 outbreak and locked down the central city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected.
He is now readying to meet more than 20 leaders as Beijing begins a Winter Olympics that could be a soft-power triumph and shift focus from a buildup blighted by a diplomatic boycott and fears of COVID-19.
Photo: AP
Xi and Putin met in the Chinese capital before commenting on their shared views regarding security and other issues, a Kremlin adviser said at a media briefing on Wednesday.
The two leaders were then to attend the Olympics opening ceremony yesterday evening.
Spiraling tensions with the West have bolstered ties between the world’s largest nation and its most populous, and Putin was the first foreign leader to confirm his plans to attend the ceremony.
He hailed Russia’s “model” relations with Beijing phone call with Xi in December last year, calling his Chinese counterpart a “dear friend.”
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency on Thursday carried an article from Putin in which the Russian leader painted a portrait of two neighbors with increasingly shared global goals.
“Foreign policy coordination between Russia and China is based on close and coinciding approaches to solving global and regional issues,” Putin wrote.
He also criticized US-led Western diplomatic boycotts of the Beijing Olympics that were sparked by China’s human rights record.
“Sadly, attempts by a number of countries to politicize sports for their selfish interests have recently intensified,” Putin wrote, calling such moves “fundamentally wrong.”
China has become more vocal in backing Russia in its dispute with NATO powers over Ukraine.
Last week, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) called Russia’s security concerns “legitimate,” saying they should be “taken seriously and addressed.”
Moscow is looking for support after its deployment of 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine prompted Western nations to warn of an invasion and threaten “severe consequences” in response to any Russian attack.
China enjoyed plentiful support from the Soviet Union — the precursor to the modern Russian state — after the establishment of Communist rule in 1949, but the two socialist powers later fell out over ideological differences.
Good relations resumed as the Cold War ended in the 1990s, and the countries have pursued a strategic partnership in the past decade that has seen them work closely on trade, military and geopolitical issues.
The bonds have strengthened during Xi’s administration, at a time when Russia and China are increasingly at odds with Western powers.
Other leaders scheduled to enjoy Xi’s hospitality during the Games include Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Polish President Andrzej Duda.
About 21 world leaders are expected to attend the Games.
A majority of those leaders rule over non-democratic regimes, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, with 12 labeled either “authoritarian” or a “hybrid regime.”
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