The 20th Congress of the governing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) kicked off on October 16 in Beijing with President Xi Jinping delivering an opening statement.
Xi particularly emphasized the necessity "to improve the mechanisms of combating sanctions, external interference and extraterritorial jurisdiction" amid the "rapid changes in the international situation."
The Chinese leader underscored that his nation has "taken a clear-cut stance against hegemonism and power politics" and "never wavered" in opposing unilateralism and "bullying," referring to, but not naming, the US.
Shortly before the opening of the 20th Congress, the Biden administration unveiled its National Security Strategy (NSS), naming the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Russian Federation as major "threats" to the Western-centered world order.
Western Unilateral Sanctions
Successive US administrations' efforts to take on China and Russia have been accelerating rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing for the past several years.
On February 4, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping outlined a mutual vision for the future multipolar world order. The leaders' joint statement placed emphasis on the ongoing shift "towards redistribution of power in the world" and condemned "some actors representing but the minority on the international scale" who "advocate unilateral approaches to addressing international issues and resort to force."
Following the beginning of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, the US and its NATO allies slapped unprecedented sanctions on almost all sectors of Russia's economy and resorted to nothing short of a proxy war against Moscow on the ground in Ukraine.
China did not join the West's anti-Russia restrictions, but blasted them as "illegal" and "immoral." The PRC has also repeatedly abstained from supporting anti-Russia resolutions in the UN.
After Russian banks were barred from using SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), Moscow and Beijing turned to domestic payment systems, i.e. China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and Russia's System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS). Some Russian banks went on to issue co-badged cards linking Russia's Mir and China's UnionPay systems. Moscow and Beijing also accelerated de-dollarization efforts by agreeing to settle energy deals in national currencies in September 2022.
The Kremlin has repeatedly emphasized the growing role of Asia in the world's economic development. Speaking at the first Russia-Central Asia Summit on October 14, Vladimir Putin noted that Russia's "reorientation of exports and imports is stimulating the development of transport corridors throughout the Greater Eurasia region."
"The key task is to develop new trans-Eurasian corridors passing through the territories of your countries: East-West, North-South and Europe-Western China," the Russian president underscored.
The concerted Russo-Chinese effort to withstand Western sanctions could also be explained by the fact that China's economy has also been subjected to the pressure of Washington's tariffs and restrictions on critical telecom and IT technologies under both the Trump and Biden administrations.
On October 13, 2022 The New York Times reported that the US was determined to choke off China’s access to critical semiconductor technology. The media outlet quoted Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, who talked about a "small yard, high fence" for critical technologies. According to the NYT, the Biden administration will act either in tandem with its allies or alone in order to sever Beijing from sophisticated technologies. Notably, the recent effort came after a July 2022 report by industry watcher TechInsights which revealed that China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) had probably built semiconductors using 7nm technology.
7 September 2022, 15:53 GMT
External Interference
Russia and China are on the same page when it comes to external interference. The February 4, 2022 Russo-Chinese statement specifically lambasted the West's attempts to meddle in he domestic affairs of other nations.
"They interfere in the internal affairs of other states, infringing their legitimate rights and interests, and incite contradictions, differences and confrontation, thus hampering the development and progress of mankind, against the opposition from the international community," the Russo-Chinese joint statement read, in a clear reference to the countries comprising the so-called "collective West."
The controversial trip of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan – an island considered by Beijing as an inalienable part of China – prompted unanimous condemnation from Beijing and Moscow. Even though the US State Department tried to distance itself from Pelosi's "surprising" visit to Taipei, Vladimir Putin called the House speaker's move "a carefully planned provocation" during his speech at the X Moscow Conference on International Security on August 16.
The Russian president lambasted Pelosi’s visit as a "brazen demonstration of disrespect for the sovereignty of other countries," and for Washington's obligations under the One China Principle. According to Putin, Pelosi's visit to Taiwan was "not just a trip of an individual irresponsible politician, but part of a purposeful, conscious US strategy to destabilize and make the situation in the region and the world more chaotic." The Foreign Ministry of China praised Vladimir Putin and Russia's stance on the China-US row over Taiwan.
Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction
The US beefing up its military presence in China and Russia's immediate neighborhood has also facilitated the Beijing-Moscow rapprochement.
Starting with President Barack Obama's "Pivot to Asia," Washington has increased Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the contested South China Sea, bolstered arms sales to Taiwan, and strengthened regional alliances to contain China's rise.
The trend has caught a second wind under the Biden administration, which has declared the aim of "restor[ing] American leadership in the Indo-Pacific and adapt[ing] its role for the 21st century." In addition to this, NATO member states have started to step up military drills in the Asia-Pacific and mounted criticism of China's stance with regard to the South China Sea and Taiwan.
China has repeatedly denounced the US' attempts to interfere in the territorial dispute over the South China Sea as null and void, given that Washington is not a claimant to the sea. Beijing has also cited the fact that the US never ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which is used by Washington to justify its FONOPs.
Likewise, Beijing suspects the US of attempts to downplay the One China Principle by strengthening official ties with Taipei and boosting military supplies to the island. In early September 2022, the US State Department announced a $1.1 billion arms package for Taipei following weeks of tensions over the island prompted by Nancy Pelosi's visit.
19 September 2022, 17:02 GMT
In a clear sign that Beijing deems the escalation serious, Sun Yeli, a spokesperson for the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, noted on October 15 that the PRC does not rule out the use of force to resolve the Taiwan issue, but only against the supporters of the island’s independence and interfering forces from third countries.
Much in the same vein, the US has beefed up its military presence on Russia's doorstep, starting with US President Bill Clinton's lobbying for NATO's eastward expansion in the late 1990s, subsequent military deployments near Russia's borders, including the installation of dual-purpose Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Systems in Poland and Romania, and ending with the militarization of Ukraine after the 2014 February coup.
To tackle what Moscow saw as imminent threat to Russia's sovereignty, the Kremlin handed the US and NATO draft security proposals in December 2021, reserving the right for military-technical action if its offer were rejected. However, Washington and the alliance's leadership neglected the accords, which eventually led to the beginning of the Russian special military operation.
Beijing apparently sees striking similarities in the US approach and methods of containing of Russia and China. After the beginning of the special military operation, Beijing immediately blamed the US and NATO for provoking the unfolding security crisis.
On August 10, 2022, Chinese Ambassador to Moscow Zhang Hanhui reiterated China's support for Russia, stressing that the US had driven Moscow into a corner with NATO's eastward expansion and support for those seeking to align Ukraine with the European Union rather than with Russia.
"As the initiator and main instigator of the Ukrainian crisis, Washington, while imposing unprecedented comprehensive sanctions on Russia, continues to supply arms and military equipment to Ukraine," Zhang told the Russian media. "Their ultimate goal is to exhaust and crush Russia with a protracted war and the cudgel of sanctions."
Despite Western media speculations about the alleged chill in relations between Moscow and Beijing at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's September summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the countries are continuing to boost cooperation amid growing pressure from Washington.
The phenomenon was acknowledged by former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Michael Rudd in a recent interview with Der Spiegel. According to Rudd, Russo-Chinese relations have been largely shaped by two factors: first, by the settlement of a decades-old border dispute between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his Chinese counterpart Deng Xiaoping in 1989; second, Moscow's turn to Beijing following Crimea's reunification with Russia in 2014. "Since then, Putin and Xi have essentially developed an almost umbilical relationship - personally, politically and strategically," the former Australian prime minister said.
Russia and China share a common vision towards unilateral sanctions policies, external interference, and extraterritorial jurisdictions exercised by the West. The February 2022 Russo-Chinese statement particularly promoted the concept of a more just world order, based on "universal human values of peace, development, equality, justice, democracy and freedom, respect for the rights of peoples to independently determine the development paths of their countries," with more non-Western countries currently joining international platforms led by Russia and China.