Opinion | China needs to rethink its relationship with Russia in 2023

Stunning the world on the eve of the Beijing Olympic Games in February this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a “friendship without limits” that would counterbalance the global dominance of the United States and challenge Western democratic liberalism.

Russia’s disastrous war in Ukraine, launched only weeks later, has ruined that vision. Moscow’s pretensions to great-power status crumbled once the Russian army failed to subdue Ukraine, suffering instead a series of humiliating defeats.

Outraged Western nations imposed far-reaching sanctions, punishing a Russian economy that has become overburdened by the costs of the war, and have manoeuvred to isolate Russia in international institutions.

Given these massive changes, it is fair to ask why Beijing appears to remain committed to its quasi-alliance with Russia. What benefits does China receive and are they worth the risk to its relations with the West? Or is China merely shackling itself to a nation that increasingly resembles a corpse?

Before February, the grounds for this alliance were clear. Following the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol building, the United States appeared to be a nation in disarray, suffering hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 deaths, a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, and with millions of Americans adamantly denying the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s administration.