Xi uses summit, parade and history to flaunt China’s global pull

Until recently, Beijing’s closeness to Moscow had drawn pressure from Washington. But that tension appears to have eased in part because of a warming of ties between the US and Russia. Trump lavished praise on Putin in Alaska in August and later echoed the Kremlin’s position that Ukraine needed to cede land to bring an end to the war.

Xi now appears vindicated for standing by Putin, and analysts say the leaders will use the summit in Tianjin to promote a vision of a world less dominated by the US.

Xi can also thank the Trump administration for accelerating an easing of tensions between China and India, which had seen their relations crater in 2020 after a series of bloody border skirmishes. New Delhi has been frustrated by the doubling of US tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent, leading to calls for a rebalancing towards China.

Modi, who had drawn closer to the US during the Biden administration to counter Beijing, is visiting China for the first time in seven years by attending the summit. (He will not be present at the military parade, though, unlike Putin and the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un.)

“Good neighbours”

In a meeting with Modi on Sunday, Xi said China and India should be “partners rather than rivals” and that they should offer “opportunities for each other’s development rather than threats” in what could be read as a subtle jab at Trump. Xi also reiterated Beijing’s stance that disputes over the shared border should not define bilateral relations.

“Being good neighbours and friends, partners who achieve mutual success, and realising the ‘dance of the dragon and the elephant’ should be the right choice for both China and India,” Xi said, according to Chinese state media, evoking the two nations’ symbolic creatures.

Modi echoed Xi, saying that the two countries should not be “rivals” and that “peace and tranquillity” in the border areas was important for bilateral relations, according to a readout from India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

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The convergence of Putin and Modi in China, as well as leaders from dozens of other emerging economies, including Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia and Pakistan, contrasts with the growing discord within the US alliance with European and Asian countries.

Some of those cracks were on display recently when European leaders, shut out of peace talks, felt the need to rush to Washington to persuade Trump not to cave to Russian demands over peace terms in Ukraine. Trump also ruffled feathers with an ally again this past week when he heaped praise on Kim during a meeting in the Oval Office with President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea.

Many US allies in Europe and Asia view China as a formidable threat to fair trade, democracy and regional stability. The last of those concerns will be underscored by the military parade that is expected to feature new anti-ship missiles, which could be deployed in a war over Taiwan.

China has tried to use Washington’s disorder to persuade countries such as India to reassess their relationship with the US. At the same time, Beijing fears Washington will pressure other countries to restrict trade with China at a time when the Chinese economy has been badly weakened by a property slump and price wars.

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“Give the bully an inch, he will take a mile,” Xu Feihong, the Chinese ambassador to India, wrote on the social platform X about US tariffs.

At a recent seminar in New Delhi, Xu said India and China had a responsibility to take a bigger role in global leadership to push back against US “hegemony and power politics”. He called the neighbours the “double engines” of economic growth in Asia, using a phrase that Modi often uses in domestic politics.

Russia, a country firmly in Beijing’s camp, needs less persuasion. Moscow has been using groups such as the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation to deepen ties with China, India and other countries that have become increasingly important to its sanctions-hit economy since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in 2022.

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Russian oil is certain to come up in the conversations between Putin, Xi and Modi. The Trump administration’s tariffs on India for buying Russian crude have allowed China to become an even larger buyer than it was before without facing similar consequences as India, analysts’ reports show.

More than anything, the summit and parade will allow Putin and Xi to reaffirm their close relationship, a partnership that the West has tried and largely failed to break.

China’s relations with Russia will most likely continue to be “excellent”, said Zhou Bo, a retired senior colonel in the People’s Liberation Army of China now at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Attempts by the West to drive a wedge, he added, were nothing but “wishful thinking”.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.