Is Russia a Chinese 'client state'?

Reading between the lines of Xi and Putin's Moscow summit

Putin and Xi
(Image credit: Illustrated/Getty Images)

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin used Xi's three-day state visit to Moscow to reaffirm their growing economic and political ties. They also underscored their shared interest in countering the U.S.-led push for a world governed by democratic norms, universal rights and freedoms, and containment of China and Russia.

Xi and Putin signed a handful of modest economic agreements and memoranda of understanding, blandly endorsed China's 12-point outline for peace in Ukraine. They implicitly criticized the West and especially NATO, declaring that the Chinese-Russia partnership is "superior" to the type of "military-political alliance" set up "during the Cold War."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.