Recognizing the opportunity Trump has gifted him, Chinese president Xi Jinping recently waived sanctions on European Union parliamentarians and exchanged celebratory letters with EU leaders on the 50th anniversary of EU-China political relations. Xi hopes to dangle investment and cooperation as a remedy to the damage Trump’s tariffs will cause to already weak European economies. Trump’s unpredictability on Ukraine has also damaged America’s credibility as Europe’s ultimate partner of choice.
Trump’s self-inflicted wound to U.S. foreign policy is made worse by its inane economic foundation: U.S.-European trade has manifestly improved the lives of the vast majority of Americans and Europeans. In contrast, Chinese trade with Europe is increasingly defined by a single word: Chinese dumping. Again, Xi senses the tides are moving in his favor. He already has some poodles licking at his feet. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is the Chinese Communist Party’s leading political prostitute in the EU. Pedro Sanchez is similarly willing to sell Spain’s national pride to feed at the altar of Chinese Communist patronage.
Still, Xi just gave more sensible EU leaders new reason to pause before embracing him.
He did so by appearing as Russian president Vladimir Putin’s figurative and literal right-hand man at Friday’s May 9 World War II victory parade in Moscow. Most foreign leaders boycotted that parade in protest at Putin’s utterly unjustified war on Ukrainian sovereignty. That war, which has cost hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilian and military lives and devastated large parts of the European nation, constitutes the most serious threat to European security since 1945, and an existential challenge to the “European project” of democracy and human rights. Sadly for Europe, Xi made clear in Moscow that he has very few qualms about what his Russian partner is doing.
In a joint Moscow statement, China and Russia claimed that “As independent forces in building a multipolar world, both sides will fully tap bilateral potential, safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core, uphold basic norms based on the UN Charter, and promote a more just and reasonable global order.”
China’s Global Times state media outlet added that, “The logic behind the development of China-Russia relations is very clear. It aligns with the fundamental interests of both countries and their peoples, as well as the direction of progress and development in the current era. It also carries the historical responsibility of being two major world powers and permanent members of the UN Security Council. The two countries have established a model of a new type of great power relationship characterized by mutual respect and win-win cooperation: non-alliance, non-confrontation and non-targeting of any third party, while also not being constrained by any third party.”
The absurdity of these two statements is quite stunning. Indeed, contrasted against the realities of Chinese and Russian foreign policy, these statements perfectly encapsulate Orwell’s legendary line in 1984, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” After all, Ukraine and Taiwan might have something to say about Moscow and Beijing’s claim to cherish “non-confrontation and non-targeting of any third party.”
That said, these statements also underline the foolish delusion of those in the Trump administration who believe they can woo Russia out of China’s orbit. They also underline the foolish delusion of those Europeans who believe closer engagement with China can be made to coalesce with European values and security.
The Global Times separately quotes a member of the People’s Liberation Army honor guard who participated in the parade. He observed that, “Participating in this celebration, showcases the Chinese military’s image and conveys our nation’s aspiration for peace and commitment to safeguarding it…” The newspaper continues, “Ahead of the mission, the unit engaged in focused study sessions on World War II history, particularly the Soviet Union’s role in the Great Patriotic War, to deepen their understanding of the event’s significance.”
Here we see the advance of shared propaganda narratives in intertwining the PLA and the Russian armed forces. While it’s unquestionable that the Soviet Union’s citizens made extraordinary sacrifices to defeat Nazism, contemporary Kremlin histories of World War Two are heavily politicized to sometimes absurd degrees.
As I noted following Tucker Carlson’s Feb. 2024 interview with Putin, for example, “Putin also reiterated the favorite Soviet claim that Poland started the Second World War. Putin explained that ‘Poland turned out to be uncompromising, and Hitler had nothing to do but start implementing his plans with Poland.’ In reality, Poland refused to surrender its sovereign territory, so the Nazis attacked it. The actual history is clear: The Soviet Union actively colluded with its supposed arch-nemesis, Nazi Germany, to destroy Poland. Putin’s sympathy for Hitler underlines the utter fiction of his justification of the war in Ukraine as an anti-Nazi effort.”
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The truth is that China and Russia are very close partners for a reason that too few Westerners wish to admit. It’s not because Beijing and Moscow particularly trust or like each other, but rather because they trust in their shared mistrust of the West. And in their shared determination to undermine the West and its democratic values to their own benefit.
No wooing will separate Putin from Xi, and no amount of Communist gold is worth the poisonous apéritif that will inevitably join to such consumption.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
