During this week's trip to China, Vladimir Putin will meet with senior Chinese officials to explain the current intimate relationship between Russia and China.
However, many Westerners are still willing to believe that the alliance between them is just a kind of confusion, Putin's emotional anti -Americanism and his bad dedication to Ukraine.This idea believes that once Putin and his dark paranoia disappear, Moscow will seek rebuilding relations with the West -especially because the relationship between Russia and China is not deep, and Russia has hundreds of years of economic and cultural dependence on Europe.Essence
Although this kind of wishful view is attractive, it has ignored Russia's transformation in economy and society.Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia has never been so alienated with Europe. Throughout its history, it has never been intertwined as China so closely as China today.The fact is that after the two years of Ukrainian war and painful Western sanctions, not only Putin needs China, but Russia also needs China.
China has become the most important partner of Russia, not only to provide support for Putin's overall trapped Russian economy.In 2023, Russia -China trade volume reached a record 240.1 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of more than 60%compared with before the war, China accounted for 30%of Russia's exports and nearly 40%of imports.
Before the war, Russia's trade with the European Union was twice as much as China; it was less than half.RMB, not US dollar or euro, is now the main currency used by trade between the two countries. Therefore, it has become the largest currency of the Moscow Stock Exchange. It is also the first choice for savings.
This economy depends on daily life.Chinese products are everywhere. Of the 1 million cars sold in Russia last year, more than half of them were made in China.It is worth mentioning that due to the withdrawal of Western companies that once dominated, the top six foreign car brands in the Russian market are now from China.The same is true of the smartphone market. China ’s Xiaomi and Chuan Yin have surpassed Apple and Samsung, as well as home appliances and many other daily necessities.
These changes are structural.Even in the Tsarian era, Russia transported goods to Europe and rely on imported products from the West.Russian oligarchs, which are blacklisted by most Western countries, have to adapt to new reality.Last month, Vladimir Potanin, a businessman of $ 23.7 billion, announced that his copper nickel empire will re -adjust against China, including moving production facilities to China."If we integrate more into the Chinese economy," he said, "We will become safer."
Economy is so, as is education.Russia's elites are scrambling to find Chinese Mandarin teachers for their children. Some Russians I have contacted are considering sending their children to universities in Hong Kong or mainland China because Western universities are now very difficult to enter.This situation is not just rumors.Last year, with the opening of China after the popularity, 12,000 Russian students went to China to study, almost four times that of the number of students studying in the United States.
This re -positioning from the West to the East is also obvious among the middle class, especially in terms of travel.For example, there are now five flights to and from Moscow and Beijing every day. The voyage is less than eight hours, and the round -trip air tickets only need about $ 500.In contrast, it may take a whole day to go to Berlin (one of the European destinations often gone in the weekend of the Russian middle class before the war), and the cost may be twice the number.
In addition, Baku and Istanbul in Dubai, Azerbaijan are replacing European cities, becoming a tourist destination for Russians, and business travel is increasingly shifting to China, Central Asia or Gulf areas.Western countries have canceled direct flights to Russia, significantly reduced visas issued to Russians, and were turned to other places by the Russian middle class outside the West.
Intellectuals have also begun to turn to China.Russian scientists have begun to cooperate with Chinese companies or work for Chinese companies, especially in space exploration, artificial intelligence and biotechnology.The influence of Chinese culture in Russia is also increasing.As Western writers such as Stephen Kim and Neil Gaman withdrew the dealers in Russia, publishers were expanding their Chinese works.With the generosity of Chinese personnel to translators, this effort will bring the prosperity of Chinese books.
Chinese culture will not quickly replace Western culture and become the main reference department of Russians.But profound changes have taken place.On the other side of the iron curtain, Europe was regarded as a lighthouse, which is regarded as prosperity and development of science and technology. It was the place where many Soviet citizens longed for.
Now, more and more educated Russians have regarded China as a big country that is more and more economical and economically strongly in addition to being dissatisfied with the punitive sanctions of Europe.EssenceBecause it is not easy to restore the normal relationship with the West, this situation is unlikely to change in the short term.
Vladimir Solokin describes a great anti -Western Russia in his anti -Oprichnik day in his anti -Utopia novel cavalry. It relies on Chinese technology to survive, while staged "The medieval atrocities in the "Ivan era.With the past day, this disturbing and distant novel (published in 2006, to warn Russia's way to read Putin's leadership) to read more and more news.
