My Take | Why West has only itself to blame for the Russian-Chinese entente
- When it comes to Washington-Beijing rivalry, a few Americans learned the right lesson from history but the rest do not know what the lesson is
First there was the rhetorical “no limits” friendship. Now, it’s “for generations to come”. That’s the latest from President Xi Jinping who signalled to visiting Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about the future of their two nations.
Putin’s trip to Beijing comes as the tide is turning in Russia’s favour in Ukraine, and Brussels and Washington keep blasting Beijing for “supporting” Russia. So, the two leaders give the West the big finger.
What do you expect? You make Russia your biggest enemy and China your “strategic competitor”, which is but one step away from declaring it an enemy. You say it’s a fight for democracy against autocracy. You have committed the most destructive war in Europe since the end of the second world war and collectively wage a full-on economic war on China. When you are doing all that, how do you think Russia and China would react?
American policymakers once understood this basic dilemma which required US adjustment in periodically favouring one against the other, never allowing both to come together, which when combined, dominate the entire Eurasian land mass.
In 1972, when Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were working out rapprochement with communist China, the two American leaders had a late-night chat. Kissinger said: “I think in 20 years your successor, if he’s as wise as you, will wind up leaning towards the Russians against the Chinese. For the next 15 years we have to lean towards the Chinese against the Russians. We have to play this balance of power game totally unemotionally. Right now, we need the Chinese to correct the Russians and to discipline the Russians.”
There was nothing in common between Jimmy Carter and Nixon, but there are many similarities between Zbigniew Brzezinski and Kissinger, their respective national security advisers. Brzezinski once wrote presciently: “Potentially, the most dangerous scenario would be a grand coalition of China, Russia, and perhaps Iran, an ‘anti-hegemonic’ coalition united not by ideology but by complementary grievances.”