Russia-China Ties: Why Putin and Xi Working Together Worries the West

Rivals for centuries, China and Russia now have a de facto alliance, even if it’s failed to reach the high, “no limits” bar that Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin set just weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The energy, military and political ties nurtured over the past decade between the world’s two most powerful authoritarian states — both of which aim to upend at least parts of the US-dominated, post-Cold War order — have grown as a result of the war, despite Chinese discomfort with the failures and excesses of Russia’s invasion. That’s aroused growing concern among democratic leaders from Washington to Tokyo.

The rapprochement was driven by a common alienation from the US that deepened after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and became increasingly overt after the 2008 financial crisis, which originated in the US. Both states concluded that the meltdown would undercut faith globally in the US economic and political model. They increased ties cautiously until 2014, when Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula triggered sanctions and a definitive break between Russia and the wider West. That forced Moscow to look for new partners and especially new markets for its energy exports. Fast-growing China was a good fit, proving a massive buyer of Russian commodities and weapons. The two states also share a deep hostility toward US alliances in what they consider their own rightful spheres of influence. For Russia, that’s the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Europe; for China, it’s Washington’s network of bilateral defense treaties in the Indo-Pacific region. Though short of a formal, treaty-based alliance, the partnership between China and Russia has been enhanced by a strong personal bond between Putin and Xi.