17/09/2014
Mira Milosevich is lecturer of International Relations at the IE School of International Relations.
'China and Russia are as close as teeth and lips', Li Hui, Chinese Ambassador in Moscow, has stated referring to the increasingly close and intense collaboration between the two countries. The sanctions imposed to Russia by the West have strengthened the cooperation between the two countries in economic, political and military matters. Despite their historical disagreements and mutual mistrust during the Cold War, China and Russia have much in common: they share the modernitarian model (modern authoritarian regimes under the guidance of a single party undermined by corruption and cronyism), as Josef Joffe has already said; both are members of the BRICS, and they have nearly identical economic interests in Latin America, Central Asia and Africa. But more important is the fact that they share an enemy: the United States. Last June, the two countries signed more than thirty bilateral agreements, among which is the joint construction of a new pipeline ('The Force of Siberia') for the supply of Russian gas to China and several military agreements. Are Russia and China as close as teeth and lips? Do they pose a threat to the West?
Russia and China need each other, but they also compete against each other. Therefore, their alliance is not unconditional. In political terms, the most worrying fact of the two States is that they represent modernitarianism as an alternative model for liberal democracy. The history of the twentieth century has taught us that this model could attract the anti-liberals. The main political objective of the alliance is to undermine the political, economic and military power of the USA, which they perceive as the global hegemonic power. But in economic terms, the Russian-Chinese threat is much more specific: both countries participated in the creation of the Development Bank of the BRICS, which aims to give cheap loans and introduce and practice financial transactions in currencies other than the dollar and the euro. It is a clear attempt to circumvent the global economic order and undermine the monetary system.
Russian represents a military threat in Europe, as China does for Vietnam and Japan. However, given the economic interests which link China to Europe and Russia to Japan, a military alliance of the two states is unlikely. China will help Russia overcome the sanctions. Russia will encourage China to be firm against the American pivot toward Asia announced by Barak Obama in 2011. But apart from this, they will continue doing what they have done throughout their history and their borders: compete against each other.