Same but different: how Xi and China welcomed Trump and Putin | China

Days after Donald Trump was greeted in Beijing with a military band, a guard of honor and dozens of young people waving American and Chinese flags, Vladimir Putin arrived in China to watch a nearly identical spectacle.

The two receptions appeared to be deliberately choreographed to showcase Beijing’s ability to host leaders from Washington and Moscow with equal pomp.

But China has also made sure the differences are recognized. Trump was greeted at the airport by China’s vice president; this was a largely ceremonial role of the actual power structure of the Communist party; Putin, on the other hand, was welcomed by a member of the politburo, the party’s highest decision-making body; This is a subtle sign that China sees Moscow as a reliable partner of a non-Western world order led by Beijing.

The Kremlin appeared sensitive to comparisons. His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, rejected suggestions that the two visits were being evaluated in comparison with each other and insisted that the visits should not be viewed from a competitive perspective. Senior Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov emphasized that Putin’s visit to meet with Xi Jinping was planned long before Trump’s trip to Beijing.

Although Moscow insisted that the two visits should not be compared, the message in Russian state media was clear. Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty wrote that Putin was welcomed in Beijing as an “ally and reliable partner”, while Trump was treated as “a rival and rival from whom anything could be expected”.

Following lavish ceremonies, both visits produced relatively modest results. While Trump and Xi project an image of cooperation, their summit produced few concrete breakthroughs and little progress on key disputes over Nvidia chip exports and tariffs.

The risks were arguably higher for Moscow. Putin has presented Beijing with perhaps the most difficult period of his long rule. As Russia’s economy struggles under the pressure of war and sanctions, the image of the dictator in Russia is beginning to erode and Russian forces have made little meaningful progress on the battlefield in Ukraine this year.

Russia’s increasing economic problems are deepening its dependence on China and increasingly transforming the relationship that the Kremlin portrays as a partnership of equals into an asymmetrical relationship. However, the war between the USA and Iran provided Russia with a new opening. With instability in the Gulf threatening global energy supplies and the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, Moscow has sought to present itself as a more reliable, long-term supplier of oil and gas to Beijing.

Before the summit, Russian officials said they hoped for concrete progress in energy cooperation, particularly on the long-delayed Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which would direct gas from areas that once supplied gas to Europe to China.

Joseph Webster, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said: “Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s western energy infrastructure have further encouraged Moscow to look east, while the US-Iran war has raised Beijing’s energy security concerns.”

However, there was no specific announcement about Power of Siberia 2 that day. Xi and Putin have instead promised in vague terms to deepen cooperation across a wide range of sectors. The two countries will “give full play to interconnecting resources,” Xi said.

Peskov later admitted that the timeline for the implementation of the project has not yet been determined.

The biggest winner of the summits may be Xi himself. China’s leader has long sought to portray himself as a global statesman capable of dealing with rival powers. Never before has a Chinese leader hosted back-to-back state visits by a sitting US president and a sitting Russian president in the same month.

Xi will value China’s image as a power that can challenge the United States economically, while emphasizing Beijing’s growing role as a lifeline to an increasingly dependent Russia.

During Trump’s visit, Xi wanted to remind his American counterpart that Beijing still retains a strong strategic ally in Russia. Hosting Trump at Zhongnanhai, the Communist leadership compound that is rarely opened to foreign guests, Xi emphasized the exclusivity of the setting. Asked if foreign leaders were often invited there, Xi nodded. “Very rarely,” he said, adding with a chuckle: “For example, Putin was here.”

Speaking later alongside Putin, Xi said relations between China and Russia “are rightly seen as a model for a new kind of relations between great powers.”

Notably absent from public discussions at both summits was any attempt at a serious breakthrough on the two wars that now dominate global politics.

Trump said he rejected Xi’s offer to help China keep the Strait of Hormuz closed by brokering peace between the United States and Iran.

The Financial Times reported that before Putin’s visit, Xi told Trump privately that Putin might regret the war in Ukraine. China’s foreign ministry and Trump rejected the report.

Xi appeared willing to project a united front with Moscow, which has shown no signs of compromise, to end the all-out occupation of Ukraine. In their joint statement, China and Russia reiterated their call to “eliminate the root causes” of the war in Ukraine; This is language that closely mirrors the Kremlin’s rhetoric blaming the West for the conflict.

Still, Russia’s growing difficulties in Ukraine will not go unnoticed in Beijing, which is watching the war closely as an opportunity to examine the successes and failures of both sides.

William Yang, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Xi may be trying to understand more clearly Putin’s thoughts about the war in Ukraine, which has increasingly complicated Beijing’s relations with western countries at a time when China is trying to stabilize its trade ties with Europe and the United States.

China, which has enormous influence over Russia’s economy, has played little meaningful role in trying to end the war in Ukraine; It is happy to tolerate conflict as long as it can maintain trade and diplomatic ties with Moscow while receiving increasingly favorable terms from its weakened partner.