It is quite interesting how ‘western’ political memes are created and spread.
- China’s New Vassal – How the War in Ukraine Turned Moscow Into Beijing’s Junior Partner – Aug 9, 2022 – Foreign Affairs
- China used to be Russia’s junior partner. Ukraine changed that. – Feb 24, 2023 – MSNBC
- Russia Becoming China’s ‘Junior’ Partner – Bolton – Mar 13, 2023 – MENAFN
- Fatalism is not an option for addressing China-Russia relations – Mar 17, 2023 – Brookings
> China’s leaders appear guided by three top objectives in their approach to Russia. The first is to lock Russia in for the long term as China’s junior partner. < - White House knocks Russia as China’s ‘junior partner’ – Mar 21, 2023 – Washington Post
> Is Russia now a client state of China, a reporter asked National Security Council spokesman John Kirby at the daily White House briefing. “They certainly are the junior partner,” Kirby replied, a line sure to echo inside the Kremlin and at Chinese Communist Party headquarters. <
From an older piece in Foreign Affairs to an MSNBC opinion writer, then through warmonger Bolton and the librul Brookings think tank to the White House.
And from there it is all over the synchronized media:
- Meet China’s ‘junior partner’ – Mar 21, 2023 – Politico
- Xi Jinping-Vladimir Putin talks highlight Russia’s role as ‘junior partner’ to China – Mar 21, 2023 – Financial Times
- A Slim Rhetorical Wedge Could Drive China and Russia Apart – Mar 22, 2023 – DefenseOne
U.S. officials must skip no opportunity to remind Moscow that it is Beijing’s junior partner. - A new cold war with Russia as junior partner and the US as a ghost of itself – Mar 22, 2023 – Digital Journal
- Xi’s visit to Russia was humbling for Putin and showed how much China is dominant, experts say – Mar 22, 2023 – Insider
- Blinken dismisses Xi-Putin ties as ‘marriage of convenience’ – Mar 23, 2023 – AlJazeerah
Blinken said Russia is “very much the junior partner” in the relationship and noted that China had so far declined to provide weapons to Moscow for its war in Ukraine. - China’s drive for a new global order leaves Putin in the back seat – Mar 23, 2023 – NBC News
> But what Xi’s visit mostly underscored, experts say, is how imbalanced the China-Russia relationship is becoming.
“It certainly shows Russia needing Beijing far more than the other way around,” said Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, who specializes in Chinese foreign policy. <
But is this really true? Is there really a ‘junior partner’ in the Russian Chinese relations? Does Russia really need China more than China needs Russia?
Well, who of two, Russia and China, has all the stuff that is needed for a modern life?
I mean energy, minerals, commodities, foodstuff plus the abilities to retrieve and process all of them into useful products. It is obvious that Russia has all this stuff right within its borders. China, on the other side, is mostly importing these things through rather fragile sea routes. China has a naval problem that can only be solved with Russian weapons. So who is really in need of whom?
China has obviously more people than Russia. But for all the Chinese riches these are still less well off than the people in Russia.
On purchase power parity base (PPP) Russia’s GDP per capita in 2022 was $31,962 while China’s was $21,291. When the Russian GDP per capita is 50% higher than the Chinese one can it really be a ‘junior partner’ in this?
I don’t think so. I believe that Russia and China see themselves as equals. That is certainly true for the relation between President Putin and President Xi. Two equals who together do great things:
As he left a state reception at the Kremlin on Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping turned to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and said the world was undergoing changes “the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years.”“And we are the ones driving these changes together,” he said.
“I agree,” Putin replied, shaking hands with the Chinese leader in an exchange that was captured on camera.
A hundred years ago the world had just seen off a big war. Four big empires, the Russian, German, Austria-Hungarian and the Ottoman had suddenly vanished. The U.S. had stepped onto the international scene. In China the Kuomintang and the Communists founded the United Front to beat the rampant warlords the imperialists had created. (Russia helped with that.)
Those were indeed times of great changes. We now see similar changes in this word. The U.S. empire and its proxies are in decline. The BRICS countries, led by Russia and China and rising, now have a bigger GDP(PPP) than the G7.
Times have changed. The arrogance of the ‘west’ has ruined its own position in the world. A multitude of other powers have established themselves and are taking over. Russia and China together will see to that.
Can the ‘west’ do something about this. I could. If it became humble and truly aware of its own position and of those of the rest of the world. But I for now see no way that it is going to happen. Certainly not anytime soon. Certainly not as long as its political discussions are made up from unfounded memes.
Reprinted with permission from Moon of Alabama.
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