Why China and Russia are natural allies, and US sanctions won’t bite too hard
- China and Russia are only separated by a river, America is oceans away
Although born and raised in Siberia, a spit and a stride from your country, I was shown for the very first time a Chinese product, a pen, by a student from Cuba at St Petersburg University in the early ’80s.
Today, fortunately, our leaders are not digging up the hatchet, with Russia even selling China weapons (“Air show deals highlight Russia’s prospects for arms sales to China”, November 11).
On the one hand, it’s rather dispiriting to know that one’s country is good only at producing arms, but, on the other, the sheer size of Russia has stamped its distinctive style on our militarised economy. This also explains why we mainly export natural resources, and our 3,000km Power of Siberia gas pipeline to China is on track for 2019, according to Gazprom, and cited as a key example of our growing business links and trust.
China and Russia are separated by a river, and that made us unnatural enemies in the past and natural allies at present. Our being separated from America by two oceans renders US sanctions rather futile.
Mergen Mongush, Moscow