{"id":1086,"date":"2020-04-28T11:34:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T15:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2022-01-19T08:26:52","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T12:26:52","slug":"sino-russian-rapprochement-what-does-it-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/2020\/04\/28\/sino-russian-rapprochement-what-does-it-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"Sino-Russian Rapprochement: What does it mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping tour the Kremlin following their talks, Moscow, June 5, 2019. (Photo by Alexey DRUZHININ \/ SPUTNIK \/ AFP) (Photo credit should read ALEXEY DRUZHININ\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Zach Martin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Havighurst Center for Russian and\nPost-Soviet Studies welcomed Dr. Hilary Appel, professor of government and\nGeorge R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College, to speak for its\npenultimate lecture in its spring colloquium series \u201cRussia and the World.\u201d\nProfessor Appel\u2019s talk, \u201cSino-Russian\nRapprochement,\u201d discussed the relationship between China and Russia, and\nthe implications on US relations with those countries and larger great power\npolitics as a whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conflict in Ukraine, the conflict\nin Syria, the war in Afghanistan, and trade with China. These are four of the\nnine top foreign policy issues the United States faces according to the Washington Post<\/a>. Chiefly, these foreign policy\nissues involve the coordination between three nations, the United States,\nRussia, and China. The Russian-Chinese relationship could not be more important\nfor the United States than it is today and with both countries sharing a desire\nto push back on the current US-led world order, it is imperative Americans\nattempt to understand the nature of the relationship between the Russia and\nChina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appel began her talk by setting the\nscene. In the last few years US-Russian and US-Chinese relationships have\ndeteriorated. The annexation of Crimea and the conflict in Syria have raised\ntensions between the US and Russia, while the trade war with China and disputes\nin the South China Sea have strained the relationship between the US and China.\nAppel stressed however, that while US relations have declined, there seems to\nhave been a rapprochement between the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appel pointed to Presidents Xi and\nPutin\u2019s many gestures of friendship on display in the media. From photo ops at\nchildren\u2019s ice hockey games to panda diplomacy<\/a>, this public display appears as a\nstark contrast to the US president\u2019s relationship with these world leaders.\nThis increase in media attention peaked Appel\u2019s interest. Are these just photo\nops, or is there something else going on there? In Appel\u2019s research, she argues\nthat there is something significant going on in Russian-Chinese relations.\nWhile there is an abundance of photo ops, there is also significant areas of\ncooperation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, Appel spoke on growing\neconomic cooperation between China and Russia. As Russian trade with the US and\nEU struggles because of tariffs, there has been a significant surge in\nbilateral trade with China. In 2019, this trade totaled $110b and after signing\na free trade agreement in 2018, China is now the largest trade partner with\nRussia. This trade is not one sided, however. Russia is the largest source of\ncrude oil imports, electricity, and arms. Together they have worked together to\ncreate the new international financial institution, the New Development Bank,\nlong term cooperation agreements in Energy and Natural gas, and many of the\ncontracts have been denominated outside of the US dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trade is not the only avenue in which\nChinese-Russian relations have improved.  Appel spoke on growing military cooperation as\na potential area of concern. Historically, long time trust was absent between\nRussia and China in sharing military technology. Russia took notice of lost\nmarket share in areas due to Chinese reverse engineering, but military\ncooperation seems to have improved in recent years. China has been seen taking\npart in joint military exercises with Russia around the world and in the\nCybersecurity sphere as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While relations have been improving, Appel\ndid touch on some of the main hurdles that China and Russia would face going\nforward. Russia and China share 4,200 kilometers of borders in the East and\nwith the recent events of Covid-19 there have been tensions at the border.\nRussia worries they may be losing their cultural sway over the Russians living\nclose to the Chinese border. Additionally, China\u2019s new shipping frontier\nthrough the Arctic Sea presents challenges for Russia, with Chinese merchant\nships attempting riskier passages through melting ice caps off their North\ncoast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there are some hurdles for the\ntwo countries, they share many common values and interests going forward.\nInterests that the United States should take note of and may present foreign\npolicy challenges in the future. Both Russia and China have a desire to push\nback on a US-led world order and ensure that their foreign policy interests are\nbeing protected in the global arena. Russia and China both wish to project\npower, after having extended periods of relative weakness, and both countries\nshare approaches to governance at home with extended presidential terms and\nparanoia of internal threats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its critical that the United States take note of the improving relations between China and Russia. These countries share many goals and values that may provide the Unites States with difficult foreign policy situations in the future and the more we understand about the relationship between these two countries, the more we will be able to work together towards a mutually beneficial future for all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zach Martin is a junior majoring in Diplomacy and Global Politics and Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Zach Martin The Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies welcomed Dr. Hilary Appel, professor of government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College, to speak for its penultimate lecture in its spring colloquium series \u201cRussia and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":1087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colloquium-talks","category-lecture_reviews","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}