Xi Jinping in Moscow: Is a new world order taking shape?

I had kind of a personal encounter with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday when I was driving home to Moscow from the countryside. While turning to the Great Moscow Ring, a circled highway being the border of the city, I suddenly saw that the other side of the highway was eerily empty. And then came the police on bikes and in cars with flashing lights, and then I saw a huge motorcade with Chinese flags, dozens and dozens of cars. The new global leader flashed past, going to his hotel in the north of Moscow, later to attend numerous talks in the evening and the next day. By that time, of course, I knew well the general meaning of this Moscow summit: it was about the new outlook of global leadership. It was definitely not about China attempting to mediate in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. The Washington Post aptly put it into its headline – As Xi Visits Russia, Putin Sees His Anti-U.S. World Order Taking Shape. The results of the visit are not only about making statements on the right way to manage the world order. First, the two sides have moved forward on the long-discussed Siberian Power – 2 gas pipeline. Only the basic formulae of the future pricing remain to be finalized, probably this summer, when Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin visits China. Both Siberian power projects have huge significance. China has signed on to the first such pipeline in 2014, thus rendering useless most of the Western sanctions against Russia for getting back Crimea at that time in rebellion against Ukraine. The thing is that contract immediately stabilized the Russian financial system. But the second such project is different. First, it is based on gas deposits that previously were meant for Europe. Second, that project puts China in serious dependence on Russia for years ahead. China has got 15.5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas in 2022. The volume may get up to 98 billion, plus about a hundred million tons of LNG, said Russian President Vladimir Putin during the visit. That may not mean that China is becoming Russia’s junior partner since it is generally stupid to describe in such terms partnerships of nations of that size. Still, China’s future will depend on Moscow to a much bigger extent. But the steady rise of US animosity towards Beijing is pressing China into accepting that dependence. That animosity is also helping China not to haggle too hard about future gas prices. Then there is that plan of linking Russia’s GLONASS to China’s Beidou satellite navigation system. Again, only the basic agreement had been reached now in Moscow while the details will have to be decided within several months’ timespan. But anyone who knows what satellites can do, for military and civilian matters, will see that it’s a serious piece of news. Everything else, signed in Moscow, pales in comparison to these two agreements, but it’s a lot of that pale stuff around. Half of China’s government was in Moscow, didn’t I mention all these cars on the highway? In general, from now on, whenever a Western producer or trader leaves the Russian market, you’ll surely see a Chinese investor overtaking his business for sheer cents. This means that whatever sanctions the West may think of in the future, be it against Russia or China, will immediately be undermined by the partnership of our nations. Some folks may really have believed that Xi’s visit to Moscow was about China’s so-called peace plan for Ukraine. Our community of China watchers knew very well that the real plan was a bit different, and it was not exactly about Russia talking to Ukraine, that have been rejecting any negotiations so far. That plan was, and is, about the chance for a global settlement of the current East-West conflict, which doesn’t go well for the West. China has been, for the last several years, proposing its wisdom to the world, essentially saying that there’ll always be different powers in this world, and one has to negotiate these differences, instead of starting pressure and containment plots and provoking wars. But one thing is offering beautiful and obvious ideas, while another thing is showing to the world that the West has failed as a global leader and has to be saved, together with dozens of nations hurt by mounting tensions and economic sanctions that devastate markets and are hated by everyone. You may like China or not, but you have to admit that it got just the right moment for grabbing the leadership mantle and showing the way to a more rational world. The world that is showing its dysfunctional character has been based on several illusions. One of them was, that whatever the US or the West are saying or doing has to be victorious and right. But, suddenly, it proved to be wrong, and a failure. So, another illusion was, that everybody was willing to wait forever for the West to admit its obvious miscalculations – about the course of the war in Ukraine, about the influence of its sanctions on the faraway countries keeping neutral, and so on. It’s only natural that China or somebody else tries to show that another world is possible. So, what now? For starters, there is an evil dwarf living somewhere under a mountain and producing ideas that we all are supposed to accept. You know these ideas since they are getting right into headlines, all over the English-speaking world. Like, Russia is becoming China’s junior partner. Like, China’s Ukraine plan is an effort to show it backs peace, not Russia. Like, China was sending weapons to Russia. Like, China was quietly following Western sanctions against Russia (that one was meant mostly for the Russian audience and has been quietly dropped). Or, like, the West can win on the battlefield. All that is rubbish by now. The dwarf has to be retired and replaced by someone with more credibility. The author is a columnist for the Russian State agency website ria.ru, as well as for other publications. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.