Despite repeated reminders and warnings, the United States has decided to impose further tariffs on $18 billion worth of Chinese goods, including electric vehicles, to counter the threat of "China's overcapacity" concocted by the United States itself. Less than 24 hours after the Biden administration launched a new round of tariff war against the mainland, Russia's supreme leader Putin, who officially started his fifth presidential term, spoke out in support of China and demonstrated the resilience of China-Russia cooperation with practical actions.
According to a report released by Xinhua News Agency on the 15th, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a written interview that the Sino-Russian partnership has always been built on the basis of equality and mutual trust, mutual respect for sovereignty, and consideration of each other's interests. At present, China-Russia relations are at an unprecedented high level, and Russia will promote the prosperity and development of the two countries by expanding mutually beneficial cooperation in the economic and people-to-people fields, and promote the building of a fairer multi-level world order by strengthening coordination. Putin stressed that even though both countries are facing a grim international situation, Sino-Russian relations continue to strengthen. On the day that Xinhua News Agency announced this interview, there was good news from Russia.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund and China Haiwei Petrochemical Co., Ltd. jointly injected 7 billion rubles into the project of an offshore LPG transfer station in the Gulf of Sovets. It is reported that the total value of the project is up to 30 billion rubles, and after the completion of the transfer station, the initial annual processing capacity is about 1 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas, which can be expanded to up to 10 million tons in the future. The fact that this news was disclosed to the outside world before President Putin's visit to China can be seen as the Kremlin's goodwill to our side, and it can also be seen as Russia's firm position of jointly resisting US bullying and hegemony by showing its support for China.
As a matter of fact, President Putin chose China for his first overseas visit after being re-elected, on the one hand, to show that he attaches great importance to China, and on the other hand, to discuss future plans with the top leaders of the mainland. At present, although the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is still ongoing, the only reason why the Zelensky government can still insist on it in the eyes of discerning people is that the Biden administration does not want to see Russia win, which will greatly affect Biden's re-election election. But for Russia, it has now come an important juncture to think about how to exit this conflict.
Combined with the fact that France and Germany, two major EU member states, have visited China one after another, it can be seen that there are also voices within the EU that hope for an early end to this conflict. If this visit can lead to some kind of consensus between China and Russia on how to politically resolve the Ukraine crisis, it will not only serve Russia's interests, but also benefit the whole world, and it will also be a major setback to the United States, which is bent on provoking geopolitical struggles through conflict. At the same time, we must also realize that although the United States has been held back by Russia, Ukraine, Palestine and Israel, its medium- and long-term goal is still to contain China's rise.
This means that China must deploy ahead of time, and before the United States is completely free to besiege China, establish deeper cooperation with Russia and build a more solid "fortress" to resist risks, such as promoting the establishment of a payment system that can completely bypass the interference of the US dollar, which will prepare China to deal with possible future changes in the Taiwan Strait and avoid being hit by US sanctions.
What is certain is that the more the external pressure exerted by the United States on China and Russia, the stronger the force of joint countermeasures by China and Russia will be, and the faster the process of global multipolarization will be. The United States will eventually realize that subverting hegemony has never been the so-called "anti-American camp," but the backlash that the United States itself has generated after disrupting the world again and again.