Russia and China, just in time for Valentine's Day
Plus updates from Russia, Ukraine, RT Deutschland gets the boot.
I have always been fascinated by China but never studied it, other than one Asian history course in college ages ago. I have been watching China closely of late, both in its efforts to host an Olympic Games while maintaining its zero covid approach, even with Omicron, and how China is reacting to the mess Russia seems to have gotten itself into over Ukraine. I like to think of China as the smart big brother who just watches all the other countries fight amongst themselves like younger siblings and then steps in only when necessary, like a babysitter always on her phone instead of watching the kids, and even then only interferes when it suits China’s interests. I will leave the China explaining to the experts, but I’d like to highlight what I’ve been reading and watching to better understand the current situation.
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I was driving yesterday and listening to Austrian radio describe the agony that athletes are going through trying to get to Beijing without testing positive for covid, and what happens when they do arrive, and are sent to their hotel quarantine bubbles. This, in German, is a great firsthand account from an Austrian sports journalist about what it’s really like now when you arrive in China to cover the Olympics (TL:DR both Google and YouTube are blocked).
This great CNN report from both inside and outside the Beijing Olympic “bubble”:
Even George Soros has China on his mind:
Tomorrow Putin will meet Xi in China. There has been much written recently about the new Russia-China bromance, but it’s a very unequal relationship. Putin needs China as he goes after the entire western world. China can opportunistically side with Russia, but never forget: China will only ever look out for China’s own interests. It’s more of a one-sided relationship. This post appears to be from official China on the relationship with Russia and Putin’s Olympic visit:
"We share similar views on the international landscape and approaches to national governance," Xi said in the interview with Russian media. "Most importantly, we share a high degree of consensus on the strategic significance of the China-Russia relationship and therefore the same resolve and desire to deepen and sustain its growth."
I was rather amused last night when I saw that Putin has been told he may only bring a delegation of SIX people with him to China. Rosenft is in, Gazprom is out.
For more on modern China and what it is at this moment, I would read this provocative Washington Post op-ed by Melissa Chan, in which she argues China is already a fascist state. For some reason the code here isn’t letting me paste the tweet; maybe China has already done its thing on the internet. Interesting.
This morning the Kremlin reportedly published Putin’s own essay on China.
"Наши страны играют важную стабилизирующую роль в современной, далеко не простой, международной обстановке, способствуют процессам демократизации системы межгосударственных отношений, чтобы придать этой системе более справедливый, инклюзивный характер".
Putin writes: “Our countries play an important stabilising role in the modern, far from simple, international situation, we allow for processes of democratisation of the systems for international affairs, to give that system a more fair, inclusive character.”
It’s actually quite an amazing statement coming from the man who just amassed 130,000 troops on his neighbours border and whose love interest runs actual concentration camps for ethnic muslims but gets away with it because Apple needs to make its iPhone somewhere and for now China is the only option.
I will be watching carefully for any signs out of the meetings in Beijing tomorrow. I don’t expect any major revelations, nor a surprise Russian attack a la Beijing 2008, but I would expect both sides to use it as a major propaganda moment to show Washington, London, Berlin and Paris who is boss now.
Very briefly on the Russia-Ukraine situation.
I enjoyed listening to this conversation and if you listen carefully you will even hear a name in the first interview you know from Austria.
From Russia, do watch this BBC report from Vladimir and read this beautifully written piece by Felix Light about the current view from Voronezh:
This Time article by Simon Shuster explains in detail who Putin saw as his ally in Ukrainian politics and outlines a theory about why things might have escalated now as his ally lost influence at home. I don’t know anything about Ukrainian domestic politics so I can’t judge, but it is a very interesting read.
Finally, the drama with RT Deutschland continues. Yesterday, Germany officially banned the channel from broadcasting, even online, in Germany. Today, the Russian foreign ministry has promised a response. Expect big name German journalists to be kicked out of Russia with only a few days notice to back their bags, much like what happened recently to the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford.
They say Scholz is considering a visit to Moscow “soon”. I wouldn’t expect this topic to disappear. Just like gas, it’s going to be around for a while.
On the covid front, we keep testing the covid child every day. Her Ct is up to 32 but is still classified as positive and I am slowly going mad. No school, no friends, no sports, just lots of internet, and a little bit of reading when Mama remembers to say “go read your book now”. No symptoms. Incredibly frustrating. She seems to be the last in the little cluster (5) in her class, and is the only one who hasn’t yet tested negative and returned to school. I guess I should be happy she didn’t transmit it further, but to be honest, I’m having a hard time seeing the bright side in any of this. I have no idea when she can get boosted now after an infection. Maybe in spring?
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the sunshine if you like me are seeing some (finally) out your window this morning.
Why on earth would a child need a booster, especially after having been infected?