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China and Russia
As you surely know Xi Jinping is in Moscow for a state visit. He brought a plan for peace in our time that is a non-starter as far as Ukraine is concerned. If this was an armistice for Russia to get out, it would have a chance, but a cease fire, virtually guaranteeing Russia the lands it has conquered are a non-starter.
But there is more to this story. Oh how the cycles of history at times repeat. The first major point is that communist China was a client state of the USSR after the revolution. It was a chiefly agrarian nation stuck in an economic rut, locked away from the wider world. It was also a nation with recent memory of western meddling, and they were no fans.
What Russia is talking with China is deepening economic ties with China. Now let’s be transparent here. China is an economic power house. Managed capitalism, urbanization and industrialization have also grown a Chinese middle class. China is an economic power house that is in need of raw materials to continue to grow. Russia is a gas station with nukes.
So here, for example, are aluminum exports:
China boosts Russian aluminum imports over the past twelve months — Chinese customs service
The total value of Russian aluminum imported by China from March 2022 to February 2023 stood at $1.36 billion
China scaled up its imports…