Trump's China Trump's China
- 22.09.2025, 16:25
The Kremlin will have to pay the price for its geopolitical eccentricity.
Donald Trump said he is working hard to end Russia's war against Ukraine and expressed "expectations for engagement" with Si Jinping to end it.
These words can be taken as a polite diplomatic formula: saying something while saying nothing. However, there is a nuance: the global diplomatic community has been waiting for the leaders of the world's two most powerful economies, the United States and China, to meet for the past several months. There is no doubt that on the eve of the meeting, the teams of these leaders are indeed "working hard."
Trump and Xi have a lot to talk about: duties, tariffs, peaceful coexistence. Quite possibly, the condition for avoiding a large-scale trade war will be a change in Xi Jinping's position on Russia. Let me remind you that from an economic point of view, the so-called Russian Federation is a small satellite of big China, since it is the Celestial Empire that is the buyer of the last hope for Russian energy resources.
On the one hand, China values its vassal, on the other hand, it does not overestimate it. China needs further economic expansion, it needs to find common ground with its economic equals - the US and the EU. But these two players have a pretty tough condition - the Russian monkey with nuclear bombs must know its place.
Will Trump find a common language with Xi?
The chance is certainly there. During Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, China has been balancing between friendship with Russia and ostensible neutrality on the issue of war. Chinese diplomacy has always found vague formulations to keep room for maneuvering.
The time for this "maneuvering" may be approaching as the leaders' meeting draws near. The PRC leadership will certainly weigh the pros and cons of the "Russian-Chinese" friendship on the economic scales, and the conclusion may not be in Russia's favor, because its economic weight, as already noted, is minuscule (1.1% of world GDP). A Russian vassal is cheap, and Trump may give a good price under current circumstances. Why not sell?
We have already seen Putin manipulate Trump, make him look bad, and disregard agreements. Could it be that Xi will repeat this trick with the US president? Unlikely. Russia and China have very different diplomatic styles. Xi will not imitate Putin.
Putin's psychotype is that of a back alley gopnik. This man is a product of the 1990s, of "gangster St. Petersburg." Xi Jinping's mentality is fundamentally different - he is a second-generation representative of the party nomenclature (a kind of "party aristocrat"). Rude fraud is not his style. This does not mean that Xi is devoid of cynicism, not at all, big politics is a cynical business. He just won't act like a gopnik, because it's not his level.
So let's see how the US and China's attempt ends, we'll keep an eye on words and agreements. It is not excluded that these countries plus Europe will agree on a "balance of power" because all three participants of the big game are interested in it. The issue of Ukraine will be a priority during the negotiations in China. For our part, we will not sit idle. Our task is to prove every day on the battlefield that Russia is in every sense a lame player on whom it is foolish to bet. We are working on it. Glory to Ukraine!
Yuri Fedorenko, Facebook