Geopolitical forces pushing Russia, China closer together

[Klaralven]

Last edited Sun Oct 4, 2020, 02:15 PM - Edit history (1)

Surely, Russia and China will not be impressed by fake neo-militarism in Germany or Japan. So where lies the problem?

The answer is that what brings Russia and China closer together is the challenge posed by the alliance systems that the US is assembling on their borders to “contain” them. There is an upsurge of nationalist sentiments both in Poland and in a number of other countries of Central and Eastern Europe with an increasingly anti-Russian overtone.

The US is pushing Germany to come to a consensus on Russia with Poland and the Baltic countries, which would of course require that Berlin altogether abandons even a residual pursuit of its traditional Ostpolitik in relation to Moscow, and switches instead to an adversarial mode.

Similarly, in Asia, the US is leading the Quadrilateral Alliance with Japan, India and Australia to encircle China. The US is hoping that the countries of the Asia-Pacific region can be moved into anti-China mode. With India, Washington has made headway, while the Southeast Asian nations refuse to choose sides between the US and China, and South Korea sits on the fence.


https://asiatimes.com/2020/10/the-geopolitical-forces-pushing-russia-china-closer/

[Buckeyeblue]

1. China has done well so far because it has embraced western businesses

Russia has not really. It seems as if Russia has very little to offer. Putin holds on to power by blatant force. Where the Chinese Communist Party holds onto power by subtle force and by really creating a seemingly better quality of like for many of its citizens.

[Klaralven]

2. China did well because it was seen as a cheaper, safer source of cheap manufacturing

First we outsourced manufacturing to Japan until they became an economic threat in the '80s.

Then we outsourced manufacturing to South Korea and the Asian Tigers until they became an economic threat in the '90.

Then we outsourced manufacturing to China, and now we're trying to shift to Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, India, etc.

Russia was never an alternative that made sense in the sequence, since it had no history of making consumer goods. It made sense mainly as a source of energy and raw materials. Unlike China, it was always seen as an enemy with a capable nuclear force.

But the China-Russia alliance makes sense because China needs Russian energy and raw materials, as well as Russian military technology.

Unlike Russia, the CCP had a historical tradition of effective centralized bureaucratic Confucian society to fall back on once Marxism was discarded.

[roamer65]

3. Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

SCO. It is the public face of the Sino-Russian alliance.

China is in the driver’s seat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation

Think about why Russia is so gung-ho on it. China needs Siberia, peacefully or not, for its raw materials and eventual land for the climate change northward exodus.