Pushed by 79-year-old President Joe Biden into a closer alliance, 68-year-old Chinese President Xi Jinping and 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin plan to strategize on Zoom what to do with the West’s more belligerent atmosphere in Ukraine and the Indo-China region. Biden has held Putin’s feet to the fire over his troop build-up on the Ukrainian border, something the West says is step to another invasion, especially in the Peoples Republic of Donetsk or the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. U.S., European Union [EU] and NATO have been sounding the alarm about what looks like an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine. But Putin has emphatically denied that he has any intention or ambition to seize more Ukraine territory. Putin seized the Crimean Peninsula March 1, 2014, after a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed, pro-Western coup toppled the Kremlin-backed Kiev government of Viktor Yanukovych.
Since Putin’s Dec. 8 video-chat with Biden, tensions in Ukraine have increased, not diminished, with Biden and members of the Western Alliance threatening draconic sanctions against the Russian Federation should Putin move his troops into eastern Ukraine. U.S., EU and NATO officials mention nothing about pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine wanting nothing to do with the Kiev government led by 43-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensksy. Since taking office from former 56-year-old Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko May 20, 2019, Zelensky has begged NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltensberg for membership. While not granting membership, NATO has supplied military advisers and consultation to Ukraine to counter what Zelensky sees as a Russian threat. Putin has made clear that NATO involvement in Ukraine is a red line.
Biden made clear Dec. 8 in his Zoom meeting with Putin that he’d didn’t accept Putin’s “red lines,” meaning that Russian can’t dictate whether any independent country decides what to do with its security. Moldova’s Harvard-educated 49-year-old President Maia Sandu said today that it’s her country’s choice to join the European Union whenever she wants. Moldova, a former Soviet satellite, seeks EU membership like its larger neighbor Romania, something that irks Putin. When it comes to Ukraine, Zelensky thinks the same way, that it’s his choice, not Putin’s, to join the EU, NATO or any other organization of his choice. Putin and Xi want to discus strategy as the Western Alliance becomes more hostile toward the Kremlin and Beijing. Joining forces together gives Russia and China more clout to confront the Western Alliance’s attempt to neutralize Russia and China’s influence.
China, like Russia, has grave concerns about Biden’s alliance with Australia, supplying Oceania nuclear submarines with which to patrol China’s growing influence in the South China Sea and beyond. Xi doesn’t want the U.S. meddling in its attempt to control its national security involving military installations in the Spratly Islands, South China Sea. Xi doesn’t like the U.S. sending warships into the South China Sean even though it’s considered international waters. Accusing China of genocide in the Xinjiang Province in Western China, the White House has also irked Xi, pushing him to join a security alliance with the Russian Federation. Meeting at the weekend, the G7 condemned “Russia’s military build-up and aggressive rhetoric toward Ukraine.” Russia and China see exactly the opposite, that the U.S. and the Western Alliance continues to threaten Russia and China.
Pushing China and Russia into a new security alliance, the U.S., EU and NATO have made the world more unstable. Not since the Cold War has the world superpowers been so close to military confrontation. Russia continues to threaten Ukraine with China flying warplanes over the Taiwan Strait, ratcheting up tensions in the region. Taiwan has begun to prepare to resist a Chinese Community takeover of Taiwan, once thought unthinkable but no facing the growing possibility at some point in the future. Unlike Russia, world powers have a vested interest in preserving a solid business relationship with Peoples Republic of China [PRC]. Pushing China and Russia into security alliances presents problems for the West, because so much commerce comes from ties with the PRC. Western nations have no significant business ties with the Russia Federation, comparable to Beijing.
U.S., EU and NATO must pick its battles wisely with Russia and China, now creating a security alliance to counter more aggressive rhetoric coming from the West. Biden told Putin directly Dec. 8 that if he invades Ukraine, the Russian Federation would f ace the most restrictive sanctions in his country’s history. China has been told by Biden to stop intimidating and threatening Taiwan. Speaking Wednesday, Dec. 15 over Zoom, Putin hopes to strategize with Xi about their respective situations. Xi wants the U.S. to stop pressuring China on false accusations of genocide against Muslim Uyghrs in Western China. Russian wants the U.S. to stop pushing for Ukraine’s NATO membership, not mentioning the U.S. sanctions the Kremlin for a variety of human rights abuses. Strategizing about security, Putin and XI hope to put the U.S., EU and NATO on notice to stop threatening Russia and China.
