"I hope you make this trip worthwhile", this is a sentence sent to Blinken by the Chinese senior level after Blinken's visit to China came to an end. According to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China and the United States have reached a five-point consensus on the basis of a comprehensive exchange of views, the main of which is to strengthen communication, enhance understanding, and avoid miscalculations. On specific issues, Blinken can be said to have touched on a gray nose. On April 26, Blinken dragged his tired body on a plane back home. Judging from the live video, Blinken's expression was gloomy and melancholy, which confirmed from the side that Blinken did not get what he wanted.
Against the backdrop of Blinken's visit to China, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at the congress of the Union of Russian Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow that he would visit China in May this year. If the visit takes place, it will be Putin's first foreign visit after winning the 2024 Russian presidential election, highlighting the great importance he attaches to developing and consolidating Sino-Russian relations.
At the conference that day, one of the participants suggested that Putin present a copy of the novel "What to Do?" by the Russian writer Chernyshevsky, which bears the seal of the library's admission on June 15, 1953, to the Chinese side during his visit to China. Putin gladly accepted and said that he would definitely bring the book to our friends. What to Do was published in 1863, at a particular juncture in the shift of the leadership of the Russian liberation movement from the aristocracy to the plebeian intelligentsia. The novel reflected the spirit of the progressive youth of Russia at that time, aroused the consciousness of the people to resist the old forces, and accumulated the indispensable passion for the advent of the proletarian revolution in Russia.
In the context of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the "gifts" brought by Putin's visit to China are definitely not limited to a book. In the face of sanctions and siege from the Western world, Putin desperately wants someone to lend a hand, and China is given high hopes by Putin.
According to the most basic principle of exchange of interests, if Putin wants to get any benefits, he first needs to give China some benefits. On May 30, 2022, Putin relented on the issue of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway and no longer held an opposing position. At the same time, Putin decided to open the port of Vladivostok to China, and Vladivostok officially became a cross-border transit port for China's domestic trade goods.
On April 22, the National Energy Information Platform reported that Russian Deputy Energy Minister Sergei Mochhalnikov said that Russia and China will sign an agreement on the construction of the "Power of Siberia-2" pipeline after reaching an agreement on the price.
Chinese have a huge population and strong industry, and there is a great demand for natural gas in both residential life and industrial operation. If the price of natural gas is too high, the economic burden of the people will increase, and the industrial cost will increase, which is not conducive to promoting the rapid development of China's economy. Therefore, if Putin visits China in the future, the issue of natural gas prices may become a key issue, and the possibility of China and Russia exchanging interests in exchange for purchasing Russian natural gas at low prices cannot be ruled out.
Of course, international relations are complex. If there is an exchange of interests with Russia, it is also necessary to take into account the feelings of the United States. After all, the Russia-Ukraine conflict is related to the hegemonic interests of the United States, which determines that the United States will keep an eye on every move of China and Russia. On the eve of Blinken's visit to China, the US media revealed that the United States was drafting sanctions that could cut off some Chinese banks from the global financial system. How to take appropriate and prudent measures to balance the left and right between the United States and Russia, so as to obtain the benefits they want and avoid irritating both sides, is a test of the wisdom and strategy of the top leadership.
(Text/Woo Tsai)