The visit of Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Russia is potentially a landmark one, author and historian Dr. Gerald Horne told Sputnik. It is glaring proof of the fact that no matter how vehemently Washington sought to isolate Russia, its plans backfired, he added.
The three-day visit of China’s president at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is taking place on March 20-22, 2023. This is a year that historians of the future may group with other “bookmarks of an era,” like 1989 and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the researcher stated. The dissolution of the USSR in 1989 marked the start of an era of so-called unipolarity, when the United States was left as the so-called sole remaining superpower, Gerald Horne underscored.
“2023 will mark what has been in motion for years now, which is multipolarity. But perhaps even more than multipolarity, we see China in the passing lane. I think also that this visit bespeaks the point that the attempt to isolate Moscow in light of the special military operation in Ukraine is not going very well,” the American history professor said.
He went on to point out the widely-known fact that in 2022, Russia’s economic growth in many ways outstripped, for example, the economic growth of Britain, which has been “at the tip of the spear with regard to opposing this special military operation.”
The current developments are, to a great degree, the result of Washington’s “maniacal obsession” with Moscow, the researcher emphasized.
Half a century ago, there was a drive for major US corporations to embark on massive direct foreign investment in the People's Republic of China, he noted.
“That's what led to the entente with China over a half century ago… Because of a desire to encircle the Soviet Union, the United States cut a deal with China. But now that deal obviously has backfired in a spectacular fashion. And what's even more remarkable is that rather than seeking to pivot, to try to somehow slow down this economic juggernaut in China, you see US imperialism bogged down once again with regard to confronting Moscow.”
China has come out as the beneficiary, the researcher pointed out. Beijing has continued boosting its growing economic, military, and diplomatic potential, despite the US ramping up its military deployments and diplomatic engagement with Asian partners to try to hem in China, both militarily and diplomatically. Meanwhile, all of the US-led attempts to isolate Russia failed.
As for Washington, the Biden administration is overestimating its strength if it believes that it can take on both Moscow and Beijing as "threats" simultaneously, the historian suggested. European states are showing more foresight, according to Dr. Gerald Horne. Case in point is how German Chancellor Olaf Scholz travelled to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November 2022 – the first European leader to do so in three years. French President Emmanuel Macron is also set to visit China in April.
But Washington, whose dominating foreign policy thrust has been to isolate Russia, is clearly in some ways going to find itself isolated, Dr. Gerald Horne of Houston University stressed.