FPI / February 8, 2022
Geostrategy-Direct
By Richard Fisher
A pre-Olympics summit on Feb. 4 between Chinese Communist Party (CCP) supremo Xi Jinping and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, which produced an unprecedented 5400-word joint statement, has consolidated their alliance against the United States and pushed the world further down the road toward a new Cold War.
Chinese state media cheerleader Global Times gushed that this summit marked the beginning of “a new era in international relations not defined by the U.S.” It was also “a scathing rejection of the US-led West's hegemony that increasingly threatens global security and stability.”
The CCP and Russia have been building their alliance for most of the last decade, but only recently have they become so bold as to declare their goals, which include:
<strong>1. Defining Their Emerging Alliance</strong>
China and Russia seek to define their emerging alliance, based on the ideologies of two harsh dictatorships as superior to the alliances of the West based on democratic values and the rule of law:
“[China and Russia] reaffirm that the new inter-State relations between Russia and China are superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War era. Friendship between the two States has no limits, there are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation…”
Russia also made a concession to China, allowing it to elevate the importance of the China-dominated Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) over Russia’s Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO):
“Russia and China aim to comprehensively strengthen the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and further enhance its role in shaping a polycentric world order…”
<strong>2. Redefining Western Freedom As The Enemy</strong>
The joint statement seeks to redefine “democracy” and turn defenses of real freedom into justifications for “hegemony”:
“Certain States' attempts to impose their own ‘democratic standards’ on other countries, to monopolize the right to assess the level of compliance with democratic criteria, to draw dividing lines based on the grounds of ideology, including by establishing exclusive blocs and alliances of convenience, prove to be nothing but flouting of democracy and go against the spirit and true values of democracy. Such attempts at hegemony pose serious threats to global and regional peace and stability and undermine the stability of the world order.”
<strong>3. China Can Attack Taiwan, Russia Can Attack Ukraine</strong>
Russia basically tells China that it is free to attack the democratic state of Taiwan: “The Russian side reaffirms its support for the One-China principle, confirms that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence of Taiwan.”
In the next passage, China and Russia signal that Russia can attack the Ukraine, they will cooperate to oppose “democratic” revolutions and may even cooperate to reorder the balance of power in Europe in Russia’s favor:
“Russia and China stand against attempts by external forces to undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions, intend to counter interference by outside forces in the internal affairs of sovereign countries under any pretext, oppose color revolutions, and will increase cooperation in the aforementioned areas.”
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