Zürcher Nachrichten - China ups stakes for Biden by backing Moscow against West

EUR -
AED 3.830458
AFN 73.504601
ALL 98.189504
AMD 417.482928
ANG 1.881674
AOA 951.086104
ARS 1072.582155
AUD 1.677698
AWG 1.877143
AZN 1.776997
BAM 1.956189
BBD 2.108119
BDT 124.794789
BGN 1.956243
BHD 0.393278
BIF 3087.513295
BMD 1.042857
BND 1.418582
BOB 7.214433
BRL 6.461283
BSD 1.044107
BTN 89.326744
BWP 14.521885
BYN 3.416879
BYR 20440.000148
BZD 2.097317
CAD 1.50354
CDF 2993.000399
CHF 0.940828
CLF 0.037534
CLP 1035.015593
CNY 7.61161
CNH 7.613279
COP 4586.911132
CRC 529.705219
CUC 1.042857
CUP 27.635714
CVE 110.286907
CZK 25.211702
DJF 185.926932
DKK 7.45904
DOP 63.502614
DZD 141.358079
EGP 53.037535
ERN 15.642857
ETB 133.231965
FJD 2.421936
FKP 0.825924
GBP 0.829508
GEL 2.930836
GGP 0.825924
GHS 15.348049
GIP 0.825924
GMD 75.086086
GNF 9024.792661
GTQ 8.049599
GYD 218.343371
HKD 8.095023
HNL 26.52827
HRK 7.480316
HTG 136.517117
HUF 410.661544
IDR 16878.642979
ILS 3.840301
IMP 0.825924
INR 89.053226
IQD 1367.771691
IRR 43891.254297
ISK 144.56126
JEP 0.825924
JMD 162.522283
JOD 0.739494
JPY 164.620257
KES 135.206857
KGS 90.727951
KHR 4193.833052
KMF 486.10183
KPW 938.570852
KRW 1536.96682
KWD 0.321336
KYD 0.870073
KZT 546.528561
LAK 22822.533408
LBP 93519.576482
LKR 305.410666
LRD 190.027747
LSL 19.559185
LTL 3.079286
LVL 0.630814
LYD 5.13402
MAD 10.534393
MDL 19.252824
MGA 4897.97292
MKD 61.542225
MMK 3387.159345
MNT 3543.628461
MOP 8.347458
MRU 41.649273
MUR 48.962538
MVR 16.063899
MWK 1810.459625
MXN 21.19837
MYR 4.66314
MZN 66.642461
NAD 19.559185
NGN 1615.146262
NIO 38.427633
NOK 11.869978
NPR 142.92239
NZD 1.85035
OMR 0.40141
PAB 1.044107
PEN 3.907076
PGK 4.17783
PHP 60.400241
PKR 290.649934
PLN 4.271805
PYG 8117.612461
QAR 3.805156
RON 4.977666
RSD 116.953231
RUB 110.256401
RWF 1441.186273
SAR 3.917439
SBD 8.74285
SCR 14.538888
SDG 627.282409
SEK 11.472524
SGD 1.416934
SHP 0.825924
SLE 23.780967
SLL 21868.196173
SOS 596.718531
SRD 36.583815
STD 21585.037493
SVC 9.135815
SYP 2620.21013
SZL 19.551884
THB 35.539568
TJS 11.406766
TMT 3.660429
TND 3.331962
TOP 2.44248
TRY 36.646384
TTD 7.095409
TWD 34.230226
TZS 2531.902931
UAH 43.815903
UGX 3829.760734
USD 1.042857
UYU 45.989135
UZS 13490.679753
VES 53.916877
VND 26545.928763
VUV 123.81009
WST 2.881193
XAF 656.087323
XAG 0.035523
XAU 0.000398
XCD 2.818374
XDR 0.800659
XOF 656.087323
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.105398
ZAR 19.497992
ZMK 9386.969522
ZMW 28.94775
ZWL 335.799577
  • RBGPF

    59.8400

    59.84

    +100%

  • RELX

    -0.2800

    45.58

    -0.61%

  • BCC

    -2.3000

    120.63

    -1.91%

  • CMSD

    -0.1563

    23.32

    -0.67%

  • SCS

    0.0700

    11.97

    +0.58%

  • RIO

    -0.2400

    59.01

    -0.41%

  • NGG

    0.3900

    59.31

    +0.66%

  • CMSC

    -0.2000

    23.46

    -0.85%

  • RYCEF

    0.0100

    7.27

    +0.14%

  • JRI

    -0.0500

    12.15

    -0.41%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    8.43

    +0.12%

  • BCE

    -0.2100

    22.66

    -0.93%

  • BTI

    -0.1200

    36.31

    -0.33%

  • GSK

    -0.0400

    34.08

    -0.12%

  • AZN

    -0.2600

    66.26

    -0.39%

  • BP

    0.1100

    28.96

    +0.38%

China ups stakes for Biden by backing Moscow against West
China ups stakes for Biden by backing Moscow against West

China ups stakes for Biden by backing Moscow against West

China's support for Russia in the standoff over Ukraine upends the strategic calculus for US President Joe Biden, who must now contend with a second front in a geopolitical fight whose ramifications could be felt worldwide.

Text size:

By jointly lashing out Friday at Washington's alleged destabilising policies in both Eastern Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, Beijing and Moscow indicated that sanctions alone would not deter their bids to play larger roles on the global stage.

Appearing publicly as the Beijing Olympics opened, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping showed an "enhanced commitment to make the world safe for authoritarianism, in particular in former socialist countries," said Steve Tsang, a political scientist at the SOAS University of London.

And for Xi, taking a public stand on Ukraine demonstrates "his shared interest with Putin to challenge the US-dominated world order", Tsang told AFP.

Official Chinese media outlets have been playing up the frequent encounters between Xi and Putin since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, which saw the Russian leader largely blacklisted by the West.

China's Global Times noted recently that "besides the official meetings, the two also shared some close moments like enjoying vodka, caviar and Russian ice cream and celebrating each other's birthdays".

"We know that both Russia and China value sovereignty above anything else, so alliance is still too strong of a word," said Anton Barbashin, an analyst at the Riddle think-tank in Glasgow, Scotland.

"But we are definitely going to see more coordinated action in international relations, maybe simultaneous campaigns in Europe and Asia, as well as deepening economic ties between Moscow and Beijing," he told AFP.

- 'Opportunity costs' -

And the Ukraine crisis gives Xi a chance to riposte indirectly to Biden's avowed focus of containing China's ambitions in the Asia-Pacific, as evidenced by the recent US-Australia defence pact and nuclear submarines deal.

"It increases Russia's relative importance for China -- Xi couldn't have provoked Biden nor Europe this openly," said Pascal Ausseur, a former French navy admiral and director of the Mediterranean Foundation of Strategic Studies.

"And Putin showed Xi that he knows how to take geopolitical and military risks, which Beijing must have appreciated," he said.

Putin is using the threat to invade Ukraine to demand a halt to NATO expansion and what it calls "Cold War" ideologies, and now has Beijing's explicit support in the showdown.

"Don't forget that Barack Obama told Putin that Russia was only a regional power -- he wants to show that Russia plays a central role, and he's succeeding," Ausseur said.

The payoff for China, meanwhile, could be in its own backyard: More US troops focussing on Ukraine and other Eastern European nations means less military weight to compete with Beijing in the Pacific.

The US response to Moscow on any Ukraine invasion, for example, could weigh heavily on any Chinese move to take control of Taiwan, whose independence Washington has signalled it would defend.

"US strategies designed to deter or overextend Russia should not inadvertently overextend the United States by imposing high opportunity costs," the RAND Corp analyst Stephanie Pezard wrote in a recent analysis.

Both Russia and China would also seize on any apparent US backdown over Ukraine to portray Washington as an unreliable partner, a potent argument as both countries look to spread their global influence, in particular in Africa.

"If the United States chooses retrenchment rather than its traditional global leadership role, both Russia and China could try to fill the void," Pezard said.

Experts also agreed that time is on Putin's side, as he left Moscow to meet with Xi in Beijing ahead of the opening of the of the Winter Olympic Games -- which Biden and other Western leaders pointedly snubbed.

"Putin should be able to get Xi to commit to support Russia should the Ukraine situation end up with Russia being sanctioned -- but probably on the understanding that Putin will not spoil Xi's Winter Games" by invading Ukraine during the competitions, Tsang said.

O.Meier--NZN