PAVEL BEDNYAKOV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images
- A Chinese defense official sanctioned by the US visited Moscow Sunday.
- The visit by Gen. Li Shangfu suggests Beijing continues to back Russia amid the Ukraine war.
- China claims to be neutral, but fears are growing that Beijing will back Russia with lethal aid.
At a meeting in Moscow over the weekend, China signalled its unyielding support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Defense minister Gen. Li Shangfu met with Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu Sunday during a three-day trip to the Kremlin, Russian state media agency TASS reported.
Putin said the meeting cemented new military cooperation between the countries — ominous words that will likely be met with anxiety in Kyiv amid US warnings that China is considering providing lethal aid to Russia.
The decision to host Li itself appears to be a middle finger to the US, which in 2018 sanctioned the Chinese official over dealings he had with Rosoboronexport, the Russian state-owned arms exporter.
An alliance to win the Ukraine war
China's intervention could help tip the balance in the conflict, where both sides in recent months have made little progress.
Putin said that the two world powers were "regularly exchange useful information, cooperate in the field of military-technical cooperation, conduct joint exercises," according to the AFP.
"This is, undoubtedly, another important area that strengthens the exclusively trusting, strategic nature of our relations," he added.
Li added that ties between the nations were stronger than they were during the Cold War. "They are very stable," Li said after the meeting, according to the AFP.
China last week reiterated that it would not be providing military aide to either side in the war, and Li on Sunday made no mention of China stepping over the red line and providing lethal weapons.
But leaked Pentagon documents last week claimed that China had already agreed to provide lethal aid to Russia, as long as it was able to do so secretly, according to The Washington Post.
A Ukrainian official told Reuters on Friday said that Chinese components had been found in Russian weapons and in Ukraine. Sunday's meeting will do little to allay concerns that China could be poised to intensify its support for the Kremlin.
Denting America's grip on the world
China has been Russia's most important international partner in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine, providing sweeping diplomatic and economic support to the Kremlin.
It has claimed to be neutral in the conflict, even proposing a 12-point peace plan. But it has refused to criticize Russian aggression and made no efforts to broker discussions with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Analysts believe that China's President Xi Jinping sees the Ukraine war as an opportunity to dent the global power of the US, China's chief geopolitical rival and Ukraine's most important ally in resisting Russian aggression.
"The visit of China's defense minister with Vladimir Putin in Moscow is just the latest moment in a flurry of Russia-China coordination to jointly confront the democracies in Europe and Asia in their attempt to dismantle the rules-based order," Jonathan Ward, founder of the Atlas Organization, told Insider.
In recent weeks European leaders have visited China in the apparent hope that they can persuade Xi to use his leverage to get Putin to back down in Ukraine.
But Ward told Insider that Li's visit signalled that China would remain adamant in its support of Russia.
"A meeting of this kind is likely to be an assessment of their geopolitical coordination in Europe and Asia as well as the present and future direction of military cooperation," he said. "Li has been clear on this visit in his declaration of the importance of Russia-China strategic cooperation, and this should dispel any further illusions about the nature of the Russia-China axis in the capitals of Europe and Asia, or in the boardrooms of Western companies that continue to do business in either China or Russia."
The meeting between Li and Putin comes weeks after Putin hosted China's President Xi Jinping in Moscow, where the two renewed their "no limits" cooperation pact. Shortly after, China's top diplomat Wang Yi made the trip to Moscow.
Not everyone is convinced this is Xi's ultimate plan. Some believe that China may step back from providing Russia with military aid, as doing so would risk cutting it off from access to the advanced economies in the West it needs to fuel its growth.
What is clear, however, is that Xi's next move could determine the fate of Russia and its war with Ukraine.